In its general shape, the configuration of the head and the large black eyes, the creature, even more than the egg, presents the appearance of an extremely small fish. A mock ventral fin accentuates the likeness. This sort of oar comes from the fore-legs, which, cased in a special sheath, lie backwards, stretched against each other in a straight line. Its feeble power of movement must help the grub to come out of the egg-shell and—a more difficult matter—out of the fibrous passage. Withdrawing a little way from the body and then returning, this lever provides a purchase for progression by means of the terminal claws, which are already well-developed. The four other legs are still wrapped in the common envelope and are absolutely inert. This applies also to the antennæ, which can hardly be perceived through the lens. Altogether, the organism newly issued from the egg is an exceedingly small, boat-shaped body, with a single oar pointing backwards on the ventral surface and formed of the two fore-legs joined together. The segmentation is very clearly marked, especially on the abdomen. Lastly, the whole thing is quite smooth, with not a hair on it. What name shall I give to this initial state of the Cicada, a state so strange and unforeseen and hitherto unsuspected? Must I knock Greek words together and fashion some uncouth expression? I shall do nothing of the sort, convinced as I am that barbarous terms are only a cumbrous impediment to science. I shall simply call it “the primary larva,” as I did in the case of the Oil-beetles, the Leucospes and the Anthrax. [26] The form of the primary larva in the Cicadæ is eminently well-suited for the emergence. The passage in which the egg is hatched is very narrow and leaves just room for one to go out. Besides, the eggs are arranged in a row, not end to end, but partly overlapping. The creature coming from the farther ranks has to make its way through the remains of the eggs already hatched in front of it. To the narrowness of the corridor is added the block caused by the empty shells. In these conditions, the larva in the form which it will have presently, when it has torn its temporary scabbard, would not be able to clear the difficult pass. Irksome antennæ, long legs spreading far from the axis of the body, picks with curved and pointed ends that catch on the road: all these are in the way of a speedy deliverance. The eggs in one cell hatch almost simultaneously. It is necessary that the new-born grubs in front should move out as fast as they can and make room for those behind. This necessitates the smooth, boatlike form, devoid of all projections, which makes its way insinuatingly, like a wedge. The primary larva, with its different appendages closely fixed to its body inside a common sheath, with its boat shape and its single oar possessing a certain power of movement, has its part to play: its business is to emerge into daylight through a difficult passage.