[4] An orthopterous family which includes the Grasshoppers, but not the Locusts. The latter are Acridians.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[5] The class of molluscs containing the Squids, Cuttlefish, Octopus, etc.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[6] A genus of Myriapods including the typical Centipedes.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[7] Cf. Chapter XIV. of the present volume.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
CHAPTER XII
THE WHITE-FACED DECTICUS: THE LAYING AND THE HATCHING OF THE EGGS
The White-faced Decticus is an African insect that in France hardly ventures beyond the borders of Provence and Languedoc. She wants the sun that ripens the olives. Can it be that a high temperature acts as a stimulus to her matrimonial eccentricities, or are we to look upon these as family customs, independent of climate? Do things happen under frosty skies just as they do under a burning sun?
I go for my information to another Decticus, the Alpine Analota (A. alpina, Yersin), who inhabits the high ridges of Mont Ventoux,[1] which are covered with snow for half the year. Many a time, during my old botanical expeditions, I had noticed the [[232]]portly insect hopping among the stones from one bit of turf to the next. This time, I do not go in search of it: it reaches me by post. Following my indications, an obliging forester[2] climbs up there twice in the first fortnight of August and brings me back the wherewithal to fill a cage comfortably.
In shape and colouring it is a curious specimen of the Grasshopper family. Satin-white underneath, it has the upper part sometimes olive-black, sometimes bright-green or pale-brown. The organs of flight are reduced to mere vestiges. The female has as wing-cases two short white scales, some distance apart; the male shelters under the edge of his corselet two little concave plates, also white, but laid one on top of the other, the left on the right.