2. The field-spiders first of all deposit their ova in a web, of
which one half is attached to themselves, and the other external,
they incubate upon this, and produce their young alive. The phalangia
deposit their ova in a thick basket which they weave, upon this they
incubate. The smooth kinds produce a small number, the phalangia a
great many. When they are grown, they surround their parent in a
circle, kill and throw her out. They often seize the male in the same
way if they can catch him, for he assists the female in incubation.
Sometimes there are as many as three hundred round a single phalangium.
The little spiders become full-grown in about four weeks.
CHAPTER XXIII.
1. Locusts copulate in the same manner as all other insects, the
smaller mounting upon the larger, for the male is the smaller. They
oviposit by fixing the organ which is attached to their tail (the
ovipositor) in the ground. The males do not possess this organ. Many
of them deposit their ova in one spot, so as to make it appear like a
honey-comb. As soon as they have deposited their ova, egg-like maggots
are formed, which are covered with a thin coating of earth like a
membrane, and in this they are matured.
2. The young are so soft as to collapse if they are only touched. They
are not produced on the surface, but a little below the surface of
the soil; and as soon as they are matured, they escape from the coat
of soil in which they are enclosed as small black locusts. Their skin
is subsequently ruptured, and they then attain their full size. They
produce their young at the end of summer, and then die.
3. For as soon as they have deposited their ova, small worms make their
appearance on their necks, the males also perish at the same time: they
come out of the earth in the spring. Locusts never shew themselves in
mountainous countries, nor in poor land, but in plains, and broken
soil, for they deposit their ova in fissures. The ova remain in the
soil during the winter, and in the summer the locusts are produced from
the germs of the preceding year.
4. The young of the attelabi are produced in the same manner, and the
parents die after having deposited their ova. Their ova are destroyed
by the rains of the autumn, if the weather is wet; but if that season
is dry, many attelabi are produced, because they are not equally
destroyed; for their destruction appears to be irregular, and to take
place by accident.
CHAPTER XXIV.
1. There are two kinds of grasshoppers: some are small. These are the
first to appear, the last to perish. Others, which chirp, are large:
these appear last, and disappear first. There is another difference
between the small and large kind. Those which chirp have a division in
the middle of the body: those which do not chirp have none. The large
ones, which chirp, are called achetæ; the small are called tettigonia.
Such of these as are divided, sing a little.