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136
My Studio Neighbors
·
W. Hamilton Gibson
54
Now
what
is
the
object
of
this
frothy
pavilion?
The
life
history
of
the
insect,
in
contrast
to
that
of
the
cicada,
will
perhaps
throw
a
little
light
on
that
question.
In
the
cicada,
as
I
have
shown,
the
eggs
are
inserted
in
the
bark,
but
the
young,
hatching
about
six
weeks
later,
immediately
forsake
the
parent
tree
and
enter
the
ground.
But
the
young
of
our
bittersweet
membracis
are
not
thus
fickle,
the
entire
life
of
the
insect
being
spent
on
the
plant.
Moreover,
its
eggs
are
laid
in
late
summer,
and
do
not
hatch
until
the
following
spring.
What,
then,
is
this
canopy
of
the
tree-hopper
but
the
provision
of
a
thoughtful
mother,
a
pavilion
about
her
offspring
as
a
shelter
through
the
winter
storms?
In
early
July
the
tiny
hoppers
emerge
from
their
egg-cases,
and
presumably
creep
out
from
their
luminous
domicile,
and
later
on
in
the
season
these
broods
of
varying
numbers
and
all
sizes
are
to
be
seen
among
the
young
stems
of
the
plant,
their
beaks
inserted,
their
pointed
heads
invariably
in
the
same
direction--towards
the
top
of
the
branch.
Even
though
in
flight
one
of
the
midgets
is
seen
to
alight
in
violence
to
the
rule,
he
instantly
recognizes
his
mistake,
and
quickly
glides
round
to
the
orthodox
position.
This
curious
insect
is
chiefly
confined
to
the
bittersweet,
though
he
is
occasionally
found
in
the
company
of
a
much
bigger
cousin
of
his
on
the
branches
of
the
locust,
where
these
same
telltale
corrugated
frothy
pavilions
are
often
seen
to
clothe
the
young
twigs
in
their
white
tufts,
the
similar
product
of
the
larger
species,
which
thus
also
presumably
spends
its
entire
life
upon
the
locust-tree.
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