At other times the end is less quick and, above all, less repulsive. I have kept a note of an Ephippiger who was dragging her satchel along the ground and nibbling at it from time to time. The soil is uneven and rugged, having been recently turned over with the blade of a knife. The raspberry-like capsule picks up grains of sand and little clods of earth, which increase the weight of the load considerably, though the insect appears to pay no heed to it. Sometimes the carting becomes laborious, because the load sticks to some bit of earth that refuses to move. In spite of the efforts made to release the thing, it does not become detached from the point where it hangs under the ovipositor, thus proving that it possesses no small power of adhesion. All through the evening, the Ephippiger roams about aimlessly, now on the wirework, anon on the ground, wearing a preoccupied air. Oftener still she stands without moving. The capsule withers a little, but does not decrease notably in volume. There are no more of those mouthfuls which the Ephippiger snatched at the beginning; and the little that has already been removed affects only the surface. Next day, things are as they were. There is nothing new, nor on the morrow either, save that the capsule withers still more, though its two red dots remain almost as bright as at first. Finally, after sticking on for forty-eight hours, the whole thing comes off without the insect’s intervention. The capsule has yielded its contents. It is a dried-up wreck, shrivelled beyond recognition, left lying in the gutter and doomed sooner or later to become the booty of the Ants. Why is it thus abandoned when, in other cases, I have seen the Ephippiger so greedy for the morsel? Perhaps because the nuptial dish had become too gritty with grains of sand, so unpleasant to the teeth. Another Locustid, the Phaneroptera who carries a short yataghan bent into a reaping-hook (P. falcata, Scop.), has made up to me in part for my stud troubles. Repeatedly, but always under conditions which did not allow of completing my observation, I have caught her carrying the fertilizing-concern under the base of her sabre. It is a diaphanous, oval phial, measuring three or four millimetres [61] and hanging from a crystal thread, a neck almost as long as the distended part. The insect does not touch it, but leaves the phial to dry up and shrivel where it is. [62] Let us be content with this. These five examples, furnished by such different genera, Decticus, Analota, Grasshopper, Ephippiger and Phaneroptera, prove that the Locustid, like the Scolopendra and the Cephalopod, is a belated representative of the manners of antiquity, a valuable specimen of the genetic eccentricities of olden times. CHAPTER XV THE CRICKET: THE BURROW; THE EGG