Note 2 — Chapter XVIII · THE LOCUSTS: THEIR EGGS

This is the creature capable of giving us information about methods of laying. In my cages, as the result of an aberration due no doubt to the boredom of captivity, it has never laid its eggs in the ground. I have always seen it operating in the open air and even perched on high.2 In the early days of October, the insect clings to the trelliswork of the cage and very slowly discharges its batch of eggs, which we see gushing forth in a fine, foamy stream, soon stiffening into a thick cylindrical cord, knotty and queerly curved. It takes nearly an hour to complete the emission. Then the thing falls to the ground, no matter where, unheeded by the mother, who never troubles about it again.