INSECTS 



reverses the natural position of the wings, but brings the 

 hind pair outside the front pair. At the next molt, the 

 wings retain their reversed positions, but they are once 

 more increased in size, though they still remain far short 

 of the dimensions of the wings of an adult grasshopper. 



At the time of the last molt, the grasshopper takes a 

 position with its head downward on some stem or twig, 

 which it grasps securely with the claws of its feet. Then, 

 when its cuticula splits, it crawls downward out of the 

 skin. Once free, however, it reverses its position, and the 

 wisdom of this act is seen on observing the rapidly expand- 

 ing and lengthening wings, which can now hang down- 

 ward and spread out freely without danger of crumpling. 

 In a quarter of an hour the wings have enlarged from small, 

 insignificant pads to long, thin, membranous fans that 

 reach to the tip of the body. This rapid growth is ex- 

 plained by the fact that the wings are hollow sacs; their 

 visible increase in size is a mere distention of their wrinkled 

 walls, for they were fully formed beneath the old cuticula 

 and lay there before the molt as little crumpled wads, 

 which, when released by the removal of the cases that 

 cramped them, rapidly spread out to their full dimensions. 

 Their thin, soft walls then come together, dry, and harden, 

 and the limp, flabby bags are converted into organs of 

 flight. 



It is important to understand the process of molting as 

 it takes place in the grasshopper, because the processes of 

 metamorphosis, such as those which accomplish the trans- 

 formation of a caterpillar into a butterfly, differ only in 

 degree from those that accompany the shedding of the 

 skin between any two stages of the grasshopper's life. The 

 principal growth of the insect is made during those resting 

 periods preceding the molts. It is then that the various 

 parts enlarge and make whatever alterations in shape they 

 are to have. The old cuticula is already loosened and the 

 changes go on beneath it, while at the same time a new 

 cuticula is generated over the remodeled surfaces. The 



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