[1] René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683–1757), inventor of the Réaumur thermometer and author of Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire naturelle des insectes.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[2] Cf. The Life and Love of the Insect: chap. ix.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[3] The Capricorn, or Cerambyx-beetle, lives in oak-trees; the Buprestis-beetles are found mostly in felled timber.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
CHAPTER III
THE CICADA: THE TRANSFORMATION
The exit-gate is passed and left wide open, like a hole made with a large gimlet. For some time the larva wanders about the neighbourhood, looking for some aerial support, a tiny bush, a tuft of thyme, a blade of grass or the twig of a shrub. It finds it, climbs up and, head upwards, clings to it firmly with the claws of the fore-feet, which close and do not let go again. The other legs take part in sustaining it, if the position of the branch make this possible; if not, the two claws suffice. There follows a moment of rest to allow the supporting arms to stiffen into an immovable grip.
First, the mesothorax splits along the middle of the back. The edges of the slit separate slowly and reveal the pale-green colour of the insect. Almost immediately afterwards, the prothorax splits also. The longitudinal fissure reaches the back of the [[43]]head above and the metathorax below, without spreading farther. The wrapper of the skull breaks crosswise, in front of the eyes; and the red stemmata appear. The green portion uncovered by these ruptures swells and protrudes over the whole of the mesothorax. We see slow palpitations, alternate contractions and distensions due to the ebb and flow of the blood. This hernia, working at first out of sight, is the wedge that made the cuirass split along two crossed lines of least resistance.
The skinning-operation makes rapid progress. Soon the head is free. Then the rostrum and the front legs gradually leave their sheaths. The body is horizontal, with the ventral surface turned upwards. Under the wide-open carapace appear the hinder legs, the last to be released. The wings are distended with moisture. They are still rumpled and look like stumps bent into a bow. This first phase of the transformation has taken but ten minutes.