The Insect Folk

by Margaret Warner Morley

The baby locust eats and grows and moults until, finally, the wings begin to show as little pads at its sides.

It is easy to find these half-grown grasshoppers in the middle of the summer.

Here is one that little Nell has caught.

See its wing pads.

Mollie says they are rudimentary wings.

It continues to eat and grow and moult, and the little wings are moulted off with the rest of the skin—for the wings of the insect are only modified parts of the skin.

But there are new and larger wings underneath, and these grow and are moulted off with the next skin, until, at last, the grasshopper is full-grown, with full-grown wings.

It will not moult any more after that.