INSECTS 



sonable hatching. There are, however, species not thus in- 

 sured, and these do suffer losses from fall hatching every 

 time winter makes a late arrival. Eggs laid in the spring 

 are designed to hatch the same season, and the eggs of 

 species that live in warm climates never require freezing 

 for their development. 



The tough shell of the grasshopper's 

 egg is composed of two distinct coats, an 

 outer, thicker, opaque one of a pale 

 brown color, and an inner one which is 

 thin and transparent. Just before hatch- 

 ing, the outer coat splits open in an ir- 

 regular break over the upper end of the 

 egg, and usually half or two-thirds of the 

 way down the flat side. This outer coat 

 can easily be removed artificially, and 

 the inner coat then appears as a glisten- 

 ing capsule, through the semitransparent 

 walls of which the little grasshopper in- 

 side can be seen, its members all tightly 

 folded beneath its body. When the 

 hatching takes place normally, however, 

 both layers of the eggshell are split, and 

 the young grasshopper emerges by slowly 

 making its way out of the cleft (Fig. 6). 

 Newly-hatched grasshoppers that have 

 come out of eggs which some meddlesome investigator has 

 removed from their pods for observation very soon proceed 

 to shed an outer skin from their bodies. This skin, which is 

 already loosened at the time of hatching, appears now as a 

 rather tightly fitting garment that cramps the soft legs and 

 feet of the delicate creature within it. The latter, however, 

 after a few forward heaves of the body, accompanied by 

 expansions of two swellings on the back of the neck (Fig. 

 6), succeeds in splitting the skin over the neck and the 

 back of the head, and the pellicle then rapidly shrinks and 

 slides down over the body. The insect, thus first exposed, 



[8] 



Fig. 6. Young grass- 

 hopper emerging from 

 its eggshell 



