the extremity of the abdomen in frequent palpitations.  This is all that can be seen.  The boring instrument, consisting of a double saw, alternately rises and sinks in the rind of the twig with a gentle, almost imperceptible movement.  Nothing in particular occurs during the process of laying the eggs.  The insect is motionless, and hardly ten minutes elapse between the first cut of the ovipositor and the filling of the egg-chamber with eggs.

The ovipositor is then withdrawn with methodical deliberation, in order that it may not be strained or bent.  The egg-chamber closes of its own accord as the woody fibres which have been displaced return to their position, and the Cigale climbs a little higher, moving upwards in a straight line, by about the length of its ovipositor.  It then makes another puncture and a fresh chamber for another ten or twelve eggs.  In this way it scales the twig from bottom to top.

These facts being understood, we are able to explain the remarkable arrangement of the eggs.  The openings in the rind of the twig are practically equidistant, since each time the Cigale moves upward it is by a given length, namely, that of the ovipositor.  Very rapid in flight, she is a very idle walker.  At the most you may see her, on the living twig from which she is drinking, moving at a slow, almost solemn pace, to gain a more sunny point close at hand.  On the dry twig in which she deposits her eggs she observes the same formal habits, and even exaggerates them, in view of the importance of the operation.  She moves as little as possible, just so far as she must in order to avoid running two adjacent egg-chambers into one.  The extent of each movement upwards is approximately determined by the depth of the perforation.

The apertures are arranged in a straight line when their number is not very large.  Why, indeed, should the insect wander to right or to left upon a twig which presents the same surface all over?  A lover of the sun, she chooses that side of the twig which is most exposed to it.  So long as she feels the heat, her supreme joy, upon her back, she will take good care not to change the position which she finds so delightful for another in which the sun would fall upon her less directly.

The process of depositing the eggs is a lengthy one when it is carried out entirely on the same twig.  Counting ten minutes for each egg-chamber, the full series of forty would represent a period of six or seven hours.  The sun will of course move through a considerable distance before the Cigale can finish her work.  In such cases the series of apertures follows a spiral curve.  The insect turns round the stalk as the sun turns.

Very often as the Cigale is absorbed in her maternal task a diminutive fly, also full of eggs, busily exterminates the Cigale’s eggs as fast as they are laid.