THE GRASSHOPPER 



unless it represents an effort to portray some truth. 



Insects hatched from eggs laid in the open may begin life 

 under conditions a little easier than those imposed upon 

 the young grasshopper. Here, for example (Fig. 7), are 

 some eggs of insects belonging to the katydid family. 

 They look like flat oval seeds stuck in overlapping rows, 

 some on a twig, others along the edge of a leaf. When 

 about to hatch, each egg splits halfway down one edge and 

 crosswise on the exposed flat surface, allowing a flap to 

 open on this side, which gives an easy exit to the young 

 insect about to emerge. The latter is inclosed in a delicate 

 transparent sheath, within which its long legs and an- 

 tennae are closely doubled up beneath the body; but when 

 the egg breaks open, the sheath splits also, and as the 

 young insect emerges it sheds the skin and leaves it within 

 the shell. The new creature has nothing to do now but to 

 stretch its long legs, upon which it walks away, and, if 

 given suitable food, it will soon be contentedly feeding. 



Let us now take closer notice of the little grasshoppers 

 (Fig. 8) that have just come into the great world from the 

 dark subterranean chambers of their egg-pods. Such an 

 inordinately large head surely, you would say, must over- 

 balance the short tapering body, though supported on 

 three pairs of legs. But, whatever the proportions, nature's 

 works never have the appearance of being out of drawing; 

 because of some law of recompense, they never give you 

 the uneasy feeling of an error in construction. In spite of 

 its enormous head, the grasshopper infant is an agile crea- 

 ture. Its six legs are all attached to the part of the body 

 immediately behind the head, which is known as the 

 thorax (Fig. 63, Th), and the rest of the body, called the 

 abdomen {Ab), projects free without support. An insect, 

 according to its name, is a creature divided into parts, for 

 "insect" means "in-cut." A fly or a wasp, therefore, comes 

 closer to being the ideal insect; but, while not literally in- 

 sected between the thorax and abdomen, the grasshopper, 

 like the fly and the wasp and all other insects, consists of a 



In] 



