THE GRASSHOPPER 



The egg germ begins its development as soon as the eggs 

 are laid in the fall. In temperate or northern latitudes, 

 however, low temperatures soon intervene, and develop- 

 ment is thereby checked until the return of warmth in the 

 spring — or until some entomologist takes the eggs into an 

 artificially heated laboratory. The eggs of some species of 

 grasshoppers, if brought indoors before the advent of 

 freezing weather and kept in a warm place, will proceed 

 with their development, and young grasshoppers will 

 emerge from them in about six weeks. On the other hand, 

 the eggs of certain species, when thus treated, will not 

 hatch at all; the embryos within them reach a certain 

 stage of development and there they stop, and most of 

 them never will resume their growth unless they are sub- 

 jected to a freezing temperature! But, after a thorough 

 chilling, the young grasshoppers will come out, even in 

 January, if the eggs are then transferred to a warm place. 



To refuse to complete its development until frozen and 

 then warmed seems like a preposterous bit of inconsistency 

 on the part of an insect embryo; but the embryos of many 

 kinds of insects besides the grasshopper have this same 

 habit from which they will not depart, and so we must con- 

 clude that it is not a whim but a useful physiological prop- 

 erty with which they are endowed. The special deity of 

 nature delegated to look after living creatures knows well 

 that Boreas sometimes oversleeps and that an egg laid in 

 the fall, if it depended entirely on warmth for its develop- 

 ment, might hatch that same season if mild weather should 

 continue. And then, what chance would the poor fledgling 

 have when a delayed winter comes upon it? None at all, 

 of course, and the whole s,cheme for perpetuation of the 

 species would be upset. But, if it is so arranged- that 

 development within the egg can reach completion only 

 after the chilling effect of freezing weather, the emergence 

 ot the young insect will be deferred until the return of 

 warmth in the spring, and thus the species will have a 

 guarantee that its members will not be cut down by unsea- 



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