While it is difficult to picture the initial stages of growth of so complex an organ as that of the Cicada, the beginnings of simpler structures such as the stridulating organs of Beetles and Grasshoppers are more easily discernible. “It is probable,” remarks Darwin, “that the two sexes of many kinds of Beetles were at first enabled to find each other by the slight shuffling noise produced by the rubbing together of the adjoining hard parts of their bodies; and that as those males or females which made the greatest noise succeeded best in finding partners, rugosities on various parts of their bodies were gradually developed by means of sexual selection into true stridulating organs.” Structures to which we can ascribe a use are commonly supposed to have been evolved for the purpose which we assign to them. The “horns” of Beetles afford a case in point; but there are many other equally remarkable and extravagant developments among the insects which seem to defy explanation. And they will continue to do so until it is realized that they are but exaggerations of the normal processes of growth, which is not limited to definite areas but may produce extensions and excrescences of an almost infinitely varied character. The only controlling factor is that imposed by Natural Selection when these growth-changes tend to impair the well-being of the organism as a whole. Often such changes confer benefits, giving rise to new organs, and in this case Natural Selection encourages the new departure. Nothing, indeed, “succeeds like success.” New departures in one direction may be promptly suppressed, in another they spell fortune: there is no “Socialism” in Nature. Often these “new departures” neither help nor hinder, and instances of this kind are commonly afforded by “ornaments.” One of the most singular illustrations of this kind is furnished by that extraordinary Long-horned Grasshopper of India (_Schizodactylus monstrosus_), wherein the wings, when at rest, have their tips coiled up like a watch-spring, while the appendages to the legs are scarcely less remarkable. It is a burrower, driving long tunnels in the banks of rivers. But little is known of its habits, save that it does not emerge from its burrow till night, when it takes long flights. This being so, the bizarre character of its wings and legs is the more difficult to explain on any Sexual Selection theory. But regarded as spontaneous variations which have not fallen under the ban of Natural Selection, they are somewhat less puzzling, though, having regard to the extraordinary transformation which the burrowing Mole-cricket and the allied Cylindrodes have undergone, in adaptation to fossorial habits, the legs of this insect are remarkable indeed.