2. Every one can have grasshoppers for study. How many different kinds can you find? Do all have the feelers or antennæ the same length? Observe the growth of the wings in the nymph, as the young grasshopper is called. In the grown-up ones notice that the narrow wing is on the outside and the pretty ones underneath.
3. Every one can also find crickets, and no terrarium will be complete without them. In the warm schoolroom or home they will make music until late in the year. Watch the black cricket make music with his wings.
Notice a tiny light speck near the elbow of the cricket's front leg. This is the ear; so you see the little fellows "listen with their elbows."
The mother cricket has a spear at the end of her body. With this she makes a hole in the ground in which to place her eggs. She cannot chirp, but the father makes enough music for the family. You will see that the mother seems to enjoy it.
Plant fresh grass seed and grain occasionally in the cricket corner of your terrarium.
4. If you do not own an insect net, try to find a lace-winged fly without one. It will not be difficult for young naturalists to see the flies resting on the bushes along the roadside. These insects are valuable to farmers because their children, the aphis-lions, eat so many plant-lice and other insects.
Fig. 345. Golden-eyes or lace-winged fly; eggs, larva or aphis-lion, cocoon, adult.
Look on the under side of the leaves for the cocoon illustrated in [Fig. 345]. It has the appearance of a small pearl. The first time I found one I did not know what it was. I left it on my desk hoping that something interesting would come out of it. The next morning there was a pretty green insect trying to get out of the window and I wondered how it had come there. While thinking about it my eye fell on the cocoon lying on my desk. I noticed that a lid had been raised on it and suspected at once how golden-eyes had found her way into my room. Who will succeed in getting the eggs, an aphis-lion, a cocoon, or a lace-winged fly? Let us know.
5. The larger the number of butterflies you can bring into the schoolroom, the gayer will be the terrarium world. Gather fresh thistles or other flowers from which they can suck the nectar or give them sweetened water in a dish. Notice their long mouth-parts as they eat.