64 Insect Life : Its Why and Wherefore 
too, in some instances, that the hind legs 
have been cruelly broken, to give an 
apparent steadiness of action during an 
exhibition. 
The female flea lays, on an average, 
from eight to twelve eggs, which are oblong 
in shape and white in colour, taking some 
five days to hatch. The flea, as is well 
known, attaches itself to animals of almost 
every kind, but in the depositing of her 
eggs the flea does not, as we should have 
imagined, attach them to the hair, or wool, 
or skin of anything ; but generally by 
preference lays them on the ground in some 
dirty spot. As a rule, a favourite locality 
is the crevice between the boards, or stones, 
of some dirty habitation where animal filth 
of some kind is present. The larvae are 
like minute white worms, and are provided 
with a kind of frontal point, or weapon, 
which seems to have been given for the 
purpose of enabling them to break the shell 
of the egg when the time comes for their 
exodus. They have no feet, but are 
provided with two small hooks at the tail, 
also short antennae and mouth organs at 
the head. They are very active, and feed 
