tively easy.

CHAPTER XX

THE GREY LOCUST

I have just witnessed a moving spectacle: the last moult of a locust;
the emergence of the adult from its larval envelope. It was magnificent.
I am speaking of the Grey Locust, the colossus among our acridians,[10]
which is often seen among the vines in September when the grapes are
gathered. By its size--and it grows as long as a man's finger--it lends
itself to observation better than any other of its tribe.

The larva, disgustingly fat, like a rude sketch of the perfect insect,
is commonly of a tender green; but it is sometimes of a bluish green, a
dirty yellow, or a ruddy brown, or even an ashen grey, like the grey of
the adult cricket. The corselet is strongly keeled and indented, and is
sprinkled with fine white spots. As powerful as in the adult insect, the
hind-leg has a corpulent haunch, streaked with red, and a long shin like
a two-edged saw.

The elytra, which in a few days will extend far beyond the tip of the
abdomen, are at present too small triangular wing-like appendages,
touching along their upper edges, and continuing and emphasising the
keel or ridge of the corselet. Their free ends stick up like the gable
of a house. They remind one of the skirts of a coat, the maker of which
has been ludicrously stingy with the cloth, as they merely cover the
creature's nakedness at the small of the back. Underneath there are two
narrow appendages, the germs of the wings, which are even smaller than
the elytra. The sumptuous, elegant sails of to-morrow are now mere rags,
so miserly in their dimensions as to be absolutely grotesque. What will
emerge from these miserable coverings? A miracle of grace and amplitude.

Let us observe the whole process in detail. Feeling itself ripe for
transformation, the insect climbs up the wire-gauze cover by means of
its hinder and intermediate limbs. The fore-limbs are folded and crossed
on the breast, and are not employed in supporting the insect, which
hangs in a reversed position, the back downwards. The triangular
winglets, the sheaths of the elytra, open along their line of juncture
and separate laterally; the two narrow blades, which contain the wings,
rise in the centre of the interval and slightly diverge. The proper
position for the process of moulting has now been assumed and the proper
stability assured.

The first thing to do is to burst the old skin. Behind the corselet,
under the pointed roof of the prothorax,