INSECTS 



it is a human animal, are always parts of its body, or of its 

 jaws or its legs. The set of prongs at the end of the body 

 of the female grasshopper constitutes a digging tool, an 

 instrument by means of which the insect makes a hole in 

 the ground wherein she deposits her eggs. Entomologists 

 call the organ an ovipositor, or egg-placer. Figure 2 B 



Pre. 3. A female grasshopper in the position of depositing a pod of eggs in a 



hole in the ground dug with her ovipositor. (Drawn from a photograph in - 



U. S. Bur. Ent.) 



shows the general form of a grasshopper's ovipositor; the 

 prongs are short and thick, the points of the upper pair are 

 curved upward, those of the lower bent downward. 



When the female grasshopper is ready to deposit a 

 batch of eggs, she selects a suitable spot, which is almost 

 any place in an open sunny field where her ovipositor can 

 penetrate the soil, and there she inserts the tip of her 

 organ with the prongs tightly closed. When the latter 

 are well within the ground, they are probably spread 

 apart so as to compress the earth outward, for the drilling 



[4] 



