CHAPTER IV. 



NATURAL HISTORY AND TRANSFORMATIONS. 



HOW THE EGGS ARE LAID. 



The female, when about to lay her eggs, forces a hole 

 in the ground by means of the two pairs of horny valves 

 which open and shut at the tip of her abdomen, and 

 which, from their peculiar structure, are admirably fitted 



[Fig. 6.1 ^ // for the P ur " 



pose. (See 



Fig. 7, where 

 b y c, show the 

 structure of 

 one of each 

 of the upper 

 and lower 

 valves). With 

 s? the valves 

 F closed she 

 pushes the 



^ yS^^ int() ^ 



Rooky Mountain Locust :— a, a, a, female m different po- r 

 sitions, ovipositing; b. egg-pod extracted from ground, with the ground and 

 end broken open ; c, a few eggs lying loose on the ground; d,e,° ' 

 show the earth- partially removed, to illustrate an egg-mass "Ky o series 

 already in place, and one being placed ; /, shows where such a J 

 mass has been covered up. q£ muscular 



efforts and the continued opening and shutting of the 

 valves, she drills a hole until in a few minutes (the time 

 varying with the nature of the soil) nearly the whole abdo- 

 men is buried. The abdomen stretches to its utmost for this 



(69) 



