INSECTS 



trees, underbrush, and weeds can not but make their 

 downward journey one of many a bump and slide from 

 leaf to leaf before the earth receives them. 



The creatures are too small to be followed with the eye 

 as they drop, and so their actual course and their be- 

 havior when the ground is reached are not recorded. But 

 several hatched indoors were placed on loose earth packed 



Fig. i 26. The young cicada nymph ready to enter the ground (greatly enlarged) 



flat in a small dish. These at once proceeded to get be- 

 low the surface. They did not dig in, but simply entered 

 the first crevice that they met in running about. If the 

 first happened to terminate abruptly, the nymph came 

 out again and tried another. In a few minutes all had 

 found satisfactory retreats and remained below. The 

 eagerness with which the insects dived into any opening 

 that presents itself indicates that the call to enter the 

 earth is instinctive and imperative once their feet have 

 touched the ground. Note, then, how within a few 

 minutes their instincts shift to opposites: on hatching, 

 their first effort is to extricate themselves from the narrow 

 confines ot the egg nest, and it seems unlikely that enough 

 light can penetrate the depths of this chamber to guide 

 them to the exit; but once out and divested of their en- 

 cumbering embryonic clothes, the insects are irresistibly 

 drawn in the direction of the strongest light, even though 

 this takes them upward — just the opposite of their 



