Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/36

The egg of a grasshopper is elongate-oval in shape (Fig. 5), those of ordinary-sized grasshoppers being about three-sixteenths of an inch in length, or a little longer.

Fig. 5. Eggs of a grasshopper; one split at the upper end, showing the young grasshopper about to emerge

The ends of the eggs are rounded or bluntly pointed, and the lower extremity (the egg being generally placed on end) appears to have a small cap over it. One side of the egg is always more curved than the opposite side, which may be almost straight.The surface is smooth and lustrous to the naked eye, but under the microscope it is seen to be marked off by slightly raised lines into many small polygonal areas.

Within each egg is the germ that is to produce a new grasshopper. This germ, the living matter of the egg, is but a minute fraction of the entire egg contents, for the bulk of the latter consists of a nutrient substance, called yolk, the purpose of which is to nourish the embryo as it develops. The tiny germ contains in some form, that even the strongest microscope will not reveal, the properties which will determine every detail of structure in the future grasshopper, except such as may be caused by external circumstances. It would be highly interesting to follow the course of the development of the embryo insect within the egg, and most of the important facts about it are known; but the story would be entirely too long to be given here, though a few things about the grasshopper's development should be noted.