INSECTS 



egg, so that the skin may be left sticking in the open end 

 of the shell. If the young cicada did not have to gain its 

 liberty through that narrow corridor, it might be born 

 in a smooth bag as are its relations, the aphids. 



Watching at the door of an undisturbed nest during a 

 hatching day, we soon may see a tiny pointed head come 

 poking out of the narrow hole. The threshold is soon 

 crossed, but no more; this traveling in a bag is not a 

 pleasure trip. A few contortions are always necessary 

 to rupture the skin, and sometimes several minutes are 

 consumed in violent twistings and bendings before it 

 splits. When it does break, a vertical rent is formed 

 over the top ot the head, which latter bulges out until 

 the cleft becomes a circle that enlarges as the entire head 

 pushes through, followed rapidly by the body (Fig. i 25, /). 

 The appendages come out ot their sheaths like fingers out 

 of a glove, turning the pouches outside in. The antennae 

 are free first; they pop out and hang stiffly downward. 

 Then the front legs are released and hang stiff and rigid 

 but quivering with a violent trembling. In a second or 

 so this has passed, the joints double up and assume the 

 characteristic attitude, while they violently claw the air. 

 Then the other legs and the abdomen come out and the 

 embryo is a free young cicada (7). All this usually 

 happens in less than a minute, and the new creature is 

 already off without so much as a backward glance at 

 the clothes it has just removed or at the home of its in- 

 cubation period. Sentiment has no place in the insect 

 mind. 



As the nymphs emerge from the nest, one after an- 

 other, and shed their skins, the glistening white mem- 

 branes accumulate in a loose pile before the entrance, 

 where they remain until wafted off on the breeze. Each 

 discarded sheath has a goblet form (Fig. 125, 5, 6), the 

 upper stiff part remaining open like a bowl, the lower 

 part shriveling to a twisted stalk. The antennal and 

 labral pouches project from the skin as distinct append- 



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