The inconceivable therefore, imported, one would think, from another planet, so far removed is it from earthly habits, reappears with no noticeable variation in the Grasshopper, following on the Decticus. What singular folk are the Locustidæ, one of the oldest races in the animal kingdom on dry land! It seems probable that these eccentricities are the rule throughout the order. Let us consult another sabre-bearer.
I select the Ephippiger (Ephippigera vitium, Serv.), who is so easy to rear on [[295]]bits of pear and lettuce-leaves. It is in July and August that things happen. A little way off, the male is stridulating by himself. His ardent bow-strokes set his whole body quivering. Then he stops. Little by little, with slow and almost ceremonious steps, the caller and the called come closer together. They stand face to face, both silent, both stationary, their antennæ gently swaying, their fore-legs raised awkwardly and giving a sort of handshake at intervals. The peaceful interview lasts for hours. What do they say to each other? What vows do they exchange? What does their ogling mean?
But the moment has not yet come. They separate, they fall out and each goes his own way. The coolness does not last long. Here they are together again. The tender declarations are resumed, with no more success than before. At last, on the third day, I behold the end of the preliminaries. The male slips discreetly under his companion, backwards, according to the immemorial laws and customs of the Crickets. Stretched out behind and lying on his back, he clings to the ovipositor, his prop. The pairing is accomplished. [[296]]
The result is an enormous spermatophore, a sort of opalescent raspberry with large seeds. Its colour and shape remind one of a cluster of Snail’s-eggs. I remember seeing the same effect once with a Decticus, but in a less striking form; and I find it again in the Green Grasshopper’s spermatophore. A thin median groove divides the whole into two symmetrical bunches, each comprising seven or eight spherules. The two nodes situated right and left of the bottom of the ovipositor are more transparent than the others and contain a bright orange-red kernel. The whole thing is attached by a wide pedicle, a dab of sticky jelly.
As soon as the thing is placed in position, the shrunken male flees and goes to recruit, after his disastrous prowess, on a slice of pear. The other, not at all troubled in spite of her heavy load, wanders about on the trelliswork of the cage, taking very short steps as she slightly raises her raspberry, this enormous burden, equal in bulk to half the creature’s abdomen.
Two or three hours pass in this way. Then the Ephippiger curves herself into a ring and with her mandibles picks off particles of the nippled capsule, without bursting [[297]]it, of course, or allowing the contents to flow forth. She strips its surface by removing tiny shreds, which she chews in a leisurely fashion and swallows. This fastidious consuming by atoms is continued for a whole afternoon. Next day the raspberry has disappeared; the whole of it has been gulped down during the night.
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, [[298]]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.