516 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



With these adult locusts, the Acridium 

 peregrinum, more commonly termed 

 Schistocerca peregrina, the males and 

 females are readily distinguished, for, 

 like most creatures, human beings ex- 

 cepted, the males are by far the hand- 

 somer. Both are about 2~y 2 inches long, 

 the female being slightly larger. The 

 wings are semi-transparent and filled with 

 veins, or, more correctly, strengthening 

 tissues, and are white with brown spots. 

 The male has a vivid yellow body, 

 while that of the female is a deep 

 brown. 



LAYING THE: EGGS AND DYING 



At once these numberless hosts began 

 to prepare for the destruction that was 

 to follow. Each female, now loaded with 

 eggs, seeks a place suitable to deposit 

 them, and with her ovipositors is able to 

 sink a hole as much as 4 inches deep, 

 through hard compact soil, such as would 

 try the strength of human muscles even 

 with iron tools (see also page 521 ). How 

 so small and frail a creature can bore 

 in such hard ground and to such a depth 

 seems a marvel which only nature can 

 accomplish or explain. While boring the 

 hole the female sits, wings outstretched, 

 upon the earth, and possibly moistens the 

 soil to facilitate the work. She evidently 

 has the ability to stretch or lengthen her 

 annulea, pressing her body into the hole 

 till the depth required is attained. 



The eggs, averaging about a hundred 

 in number, are now deposited in the bot- 

 tom of this hole, not haphazard, but 

 neatly arranged in a long cylindrical mass 

 and enveloped in a sticky glutinous secre- 

 tion, with which frothy substance the top 

 of the hole is also sealed to prevent ene- 

 mies encroaching, and at the same time 

 of such a nature as to allow the newly 

 hatched brood to get out readily. It was 

 found, in digging for these eggs, that 

 when newly laid they could with ease be 

 removed from the soil in one piece over 

 an inch long and as thick as a slate pen- 

 cil ; but once a few days had passed, they 

 crumbled apart when touched. 



The eggs require a certain amount of 

 moisture, for once dried or exposed to 

 air they never hatch, which no doubt ac- 

 counts for the depth to which the mother 



parent at times deposits them into the 

 ground. 



Once the female locust has laid the 

 eggs, her life mission is done; she flies 

 away — where to one cannot say — and 

 soon dies. 



One remarkable feature is the variety 

 of soils and climatic conditions under 

 which these eggs were laid. In the Jor- 

 dan Valley, earth's lowest spot, 1,300 

 feet below the Mediterranean, we find 

 them deposited on the very banks of this 

 historic river, notably at "the Ford," 

 where it is supposed the Children of 

 Israel passed over into Canaan (Josh. 

 3) ; also farther down toward the Dead 

 Sea, in soil heavily impregnated with 

 alkali, where are the "slime pits" into 

 which probably, during their retreat, the 

 kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell when 

 in full flight from Chedorlaomer and his 

 allies (Gen. 14). 



Then they were to be found on the 

 highest mountain tops ; in the beautiful 

 olive groves about Bethlehem and Zelzah, 

 birthplaces of David and Saul, Israel's 

 first kings ; also in the vicinity about the 

 fields and village of the Shepherds, 

 where, eighteen hundred years ago, mor- 

 tal ears heard an angel chorus ; in the 

 chalky soil of Wad el Nar (Valley of 

 Fire), which is the extension of the Vale 

 of Hinnom, a place where Israel caused 

 "his son or his daughter to pass through 

 the fire to Molech" (2 Kings 23: 10). 



They were deposited in the barren dis- 

 tricts of the wilderness of the "scape 

 goat" (Lev. 16:7-26), as well as in the 

 richest soil of the Philistine Plain, where 

 Samson turned loose the 300 foxes with 

 firebrands into his enemies' wheat fields 

 (Judges 15:4, 5) ; also in the soft, mov- 

 ing sand-dunes along the seacoast of 

 Tyre, Sidon, Askelon, and Gaza, cities 

 once ranking with the greatest of the 

 earth ; among the world - famed Jaffa 

 orange orchards ; in the rocky and rugged 

 valley between Mickmash and Gibeah, 

 on whose precipitous sides "Jonathan 

 climbed up on his hands and his feet" 

 into the Philistine garrison and slew a 

 score of them (1 Sam. 14:4-14). In 

 fact, in all parts of the country so laden 

 with historic events, whether in open 

 fields or standing grain, in the plain or in 



