THE GRASSHOPPER 



it changes to a pupa, the stage in which it is to be trans- 

 formed back into the form of its beetle parents. The final 

 change is accomplished in less than a week, and the 

 creature then emerges from the soil, now a fully-formed 

 striped blister beetle. 



The grasshoppers' eggs furnish food for many other 

 insects besides the young blister beetles. There are species 

 of flies and of small wasplike insects whose larvae feed in 

 the egg-pods in much the same manner as do the triungu- 

 lins, and there are still other species of general feeders 

 that devour the locust eggs as a part of their miscellaneous 

 diet. Notwithstanding all this destruction of the germs 

 of their future progeny, however, the grasshoppers still 

 thrive in abundance, for grasshoppers, like most other 

 insects, put their trust in the admonition that there is 

 safety in numbers. So many eggs are produced and stored 

 away in the ground each season that the whole force of 

 their enemies combined can not destroy them all, and 

 enough are sure to come through intact to render certain 

 the continuance of the species. Thus we see that nature 

 has various ways of accomplishing her ends — she might 

 have given the grasshopper eggs better protection in the 

 pods, but, being usually careless of individuals, she chose 

 to guarantee perpetuance with fertility. 



[*5 



