INSEGTS# 



ment in her tail,* somewhat resembling a two-edged 

 sword, which, like the grasshopper, she can sheath 

 and unsheath at pleasure. With this she perforates 

 to the pith of the tender twigs of such trees as will af- 

 ford a convenient nidus for the eggs, and deposits 

 them by 14 or 15, under the bark in the form of the 

 letter V ; and sometimes she pierces through a twig 

 one- fourth of an inch thick. 



It is thus that the parent provides for a succession 

 of the species, in which employment she is generally 

 busied until about the tenth day of her moth statCi 

 seldom if ever feeding on any thing but the early- 

 dew : for, as they fly in such numbers (and always 

 carelessly, without a leader, as is usual with the 

 eastern locust) were they to feed on plants, the da- 

 mage must certainly be observable : and as they live 

 in the moth state twelve or thirteen days, it is pro« 

 bable they have a portion of dew for their sustenance. 

 Then they dry up as the silk worm moth, the male 

 becoming superannuated two or three days before 

 the female. 



Having pursued the locust through its several 

 moth stages, the numerous offspring it has deposited 

 in the slender twigs of trees, have still some claim to 

 investigation. The eggs are of a cylindrical form, 

 rounded at the ends, and are of such a consistence, 

 that they require a hard pressure between the fingers 

 to crash them. The substance within, as in most 

 other small eggs, is a white, transparent, and viscous 

 fluid. In about the space of fourteen days, from the 

 time of their first being left by the parent, the egg 



* Others say, that the dart is fixed between her breast and bclly> 

 and extends to the end of her tail. 



