THE GRYLLUS. 



181 



sect, is of very great comparative length, and is used for tlie pur- 

 pose of placing the eggs in a convenient spot. Pressed closely 

 together, the blades form an- admirable boring instrument, but 

 when the required hole is made, the blades separate so as to per- 

 mit an egg to pass between them, and guide it to the exact spot 

 where it is to lie. The insect does not place many eggs in one 



CrrylluB depoaiting Egga, 



spot, but after depositing some ten or twelve eggs, she goes off to 

 another locality and repeats the process until her store is ex- 

 hausted. She thus contrives to spread her offspring rather wide- 

 ly over the ground, and avoids the danger of losing the entire 

 brood by a single accident. 



When the young insects are first hatched, they are nearly 

 white, and of very small dimensions, being no larger than ordi- 

 nary gnats. At the left hand of the engraving may be seen a 

 small cavity, in which the young Grylli have just been hatched, 

 several of them being shown of their natural size. The well- 

 known Great Green Grasshopper, which is sometimes found in 

 our hedges and nut-trees, and so often frightens the ignorant, is 

 closely allied to the insect which has just been described, and 

 has very similar habits. 



The terrible Migratory Locust, which passes over the country 

 in such countless hosts, is also a partial burrower, laying its eggs 



