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.

This insect was known to Réaumur. In nearly all the twigs examined he
found its grub, the cause of a misunderstanding at the beginning of his