With this long, sharp ovipositor the grasshopper can roughen the bark of
twigs or make holes in the stems of plants or in the earth.
Then the eggs are guided down through the long ovipositor to the place
prepared for them, and fastened there by a gummy substance.
[Illustration]
Only the female grasshoppers have the long, sword-shaped ovipositor.
The ovipositor of the locust is not long and sword-like.
It is short, but it is strong and sharp, and you remember how the locust
uses it to dig with.
Yes, indeed, Mollie, there are a great many species of locusts and
grasshoppers, and some of them are very beautiful.
In hot countries they sometimes grow to an enormous size.
May is asking why they make molasses.
No, Ned, of course it isn't molasses. Children call it molasses because
it looks like it.
Now, May, where does it make its molasses?
In its mouth, you say, and then it spits it out on your finger.
What? You don't like its old molasses on your finger?
No, of course not.
It smells bad, and it is sticky and disagreeable to the touch, and if
you happen to put your finger in your mouth it has a nasty taste.
[Illustration]
John says he hates to touch the grasshopper on account of this molasses.
You _all_ do?
Well, I guess that is why it makes its molasses; it doesn't want you to
touch it.
It doesn't want birds to eat it, or other insects to bother it, and so
it smears them with this ill-smelling, sticky liquid.
Some birds eat it, however, in spite of its molasses.
Turkeys do.
What is that, Ned? turkeys are not birds, you think?
What are they?
If you think about it, you will have to come to the conclusion that
turkeys are birds.
Then chickens and ducks and geese must be birds?
Well, so they are. They are all birds.
But to return to turkeys.
A flock of turkeys will spread out in a long line, and go across a
field, driving the grasshoppers ahead of them, and eating them as fast
as they can pick them up.
It is a funny sight to see a big flock of turkeys hunting grasshoppers
in a meadow.
It is not funny to the grasshoppers, though.
What is that, Charlie? The grasshopper somehow reminds you of the
praying mantis?
Do you know it is a near relative of the mantis?
Now, I will tell you something funny about the mantis.
It makes "molasses" like the grasshopper. Yes, it is this harmless
"molasses" that has given it the name of "mule-killer."
I will tell you something else. If you lie down in the grass and watch
the grasshoppers, you will have a good time, and you will see some
strange things.
Nobody can tell you very much about the grasshoppers--or about the
living creature. The best way is to use your own eyes and watch.
Just lie down in the grass perfectly still, and soon the insects that
live in the grass will begin to appear.
[Illustration]
What they will do you must find out for yourselves; but you may be sure
it will be worth finding out,--the funny, clever, wise little
people!--ah! they are good to watch.
They will soon go on chirping and shrilling and rasping and kricking and
tapping and whizzing and whirring and buzzing all about you; and if you
listen sharp, perhaps you can understand some of the things they say.
And this I am sure of; if you really watch and listen, you can learn to
know the different insects by their sounds, just as you can know the
birds by their songs. You can even tell whether you are listening to the
meadow grasshopper, or the locust.
If I thought you were not tired of hearing how grasshoppers are made, I
should tell you some more.
John says he would like to know some more.
Well, then, I will tell you about their rings.
You can see the rings of the grasshopper people very plainly in their
abdomens.
[Illustration]
Here is a picture of a grasshopper. It is not all drawn. The legs and
wings are not shown, and the abdomen is drawn by itself so you can see
it easily.
There are ten rings, you see.
The rings are covered with a hard, horny substance.
This horny substance is what makes the body of the insect so stiff. It
would be soft but for the chitin, as the horny substance is called.
It is better for the insect to have a chitinous covering.
If you had no bones, you would be glad to have your skin hardened with
chitin.
You see how it is, you wear your skeleton inside. Your skeleton is of
bones; it is an inside skeleton.
The grasshoppers and all the insects wear their skeleton outside. It is
made of chitin; it is an outside skeleton.
Insects have no bones.
They do not need any. They are kept stiff by the chitin.
Each ring in the insect's abdomen is made of four pieces, the back
piece, the side pieces, and the under piece. You can see the back piece
and one side piece in the picture, but you cannot see the other side
piece nor the under piece without turning the insect over.
The rings are made in pieces so the insect can move.
Suppose each ring were made of one stiff piece like a finger ring. What
a poor stiff, old grasshopper it would be! The rings are called
segments.
Segment number one has only a back piece, you see.
All the other segments have four pieces.
Segments two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight are alike.
Segments nine and ten are modified to form the ovipositor.
The segments are fastened together by skin. The skin is soft so the
segments can move back and forth.
The segments can be crowded close together to shorten the abdomen.
The segments can be separated from each other to lengthen the abdomen.
There is no chitin in the skin between the segments. It is soft so the
segments can move.
Do you know how a telescope is made?
The abdomen of the insect can lengthen and shorten somewhat like a
telescope.
It is easy to see the rings in the abdomen of the locust or grasshopper.
Now, what about the thorax?
That, you tell me, has no rings.
[Illustration]
Look again, and look carefully.
You will have to see another picture.
This is a picture of the head and thorax of the grasshopper. It is drawn
to show the separate parts of the thorax.
Yes, John, the thorax has three segments. They are grown so close
together you would not suspect it until you looked very close.
The front legs are fastened to the first segment.
What is fastened to the middle segment?
Yes, May, the middle pair of legs and the wing covers.
Mollie says the long hind legs and the flying wings are fastened to the
third or hind segment.
Oh, you funny little folks! you are all made up of rings.
Yes, indeed, little Nell, the segments of the thorax are made of chitin;
they are very stiff.
Ned thinks the segments of the legs are made of chitin too.
Their outside shell certainly is.
The whole outer shell of the insect is made of the horny chitin.
You hard little chitin-covered, segmented people, you are very different
from us.
Ah! yes, May, they are like us in many ways.
Indeed, Mollie, insects do have brains.
They have muscles, too, to move their little bodies with.
We have muscles under our skin, you know. The muscles move our arms and
legs and bodies.
If you clasp your fingers around your arm and then move your arm, you
can feel the muscles.
The insects have muscles inside their chitinous shells. The muscles move
their bodies.
The muscles are very, very strong.
They are stronger for their size than the muscles of a horse.
John, do you know how heavy a load a horse can pull?
Well, it cannot pull a load equal to the weight of its own body.
Now, listen to this,--almost any insect can pull a load that is five
times the weight of its body!
Ah, yes, some insects can pull a much heavier weight than that. The
honey bee, for instance, can pull a load twenty times as heavy as its
body.
And think how our little insect friends can jump! Why, a kangaroo cannot
begin to jump like a grasshopper.
No, indeed, Ned, the finest jumper in the world of men cannot begin to
jump as well as a grasshopper, not even with the aid of a spring board.
He is a mere baby in comparison.
Ah, yes, we can do a great many things better than the grasshoppers,
but, you see, they can do some things better than we can.
What is that, John?
You want to know about the mouth parts of the grasshopper?
Suppose we leave the mouth parts.
They are difficult to understand. We have had a good many new names to
learn lately.
What, May? You can't remember such hard words?
Oh, yes, of course you can.
You don't mind learning "rhinoceros," and "Mississippi," and
"Popocatepetl," and "eenie, meenie, monie mike," and they are quite as
hard as femur and tibia; and, besides, you have a femur yourself! Did
you know it?
Your thigh bone, like the grasshopper's thigh, is called a femur.
Yes, Mollie, there is a bone in your leg called the tibia, and you have
a tarsus in your foot.
So, after all, when you are learning hard words about insects you are
learning a great deal besides, as you will find.
[Illustration]