THE WHITE-FACED DECTICUS: THE LAYING AND THE HATCHING OF THE EGGS
Too Long; Didn't Read
The White-faced Decticus is an African insect that in France hardly ventures beyond the borders of Provence and Languedoc. She wants the sun that ripens the olives. Can it be that a high temperature acts as a stimulus to her matrimonial eccentricities, or are we to look upon these as family customs, independent of climate? Do things happen under frosty skies just as they do under a burning sun?
I go for my information to another Decticus, the Alpine Analota (A. alpina, Yersin), who inhabits the high ridges of Mont Ventoux,1 which are covered with snow for half the year. Many a time, during my old botanical expeditions, I had noticed the portly insect hopping among the stones from one bit of turf to the next. This time, I do not go in search of it: it reaches me by post. Following my indications, an obliging forester2 climbs up there twice in the first fortnight of August and brings me back the wherewithal to fill a cage comfortably.