INSECTS 

 THEIR WAYS AND MEANS OF LIVING 



CHAPTER I 



THE GRASSHOPPER 



Sometime in spring, earlier or later according to the lati- 

 tude or the season, the fields, the lawns, the gardens, sud- 

 denly are teeming with young grasshoppers. Comical little 

 fellows are they, with big heads, no wings, and strong hind 

 legs (Fig. i). They feed on the fresh herbage and hop 

 lightly here and there, as if their existence in no way in- 

 volved the mystery of life nor raised any questions as to 

 why they are here, how they came to be here, and whence 

 they came. Of these questions, the last is the only one 

 to which at present we can give a definite answer. 



If we should search the ground closely at this season, 

 it might be possible to see that the infant and apparently 

 motherless grasshoppers are delivered into the visible 

 world from the earth itself. With this information, a 

 nature student of ancient times would have been satisfied 

 —grasshoppers, he would then announce, are bred spon- 

 taneously from matter in the earth; the public would 

 believe him, and thereafter would countenance no con- 

 trary opinion. There came a time in history, however, 

 when some naturalist succeeded in overthrowing this idea 

 and established in its place the dictum that every life comes 

 from an egg. This being still our creed, we must look for 

 the grasshopper's egg. 



[I] 



