Changing skins

Changing skins

A young grasshopper climbs upon a twig. For a long time the grasshopper
holds on to the twig without moving.

Then, a strange thing happens. The skin splits all along the
grasshopper’s back. Something pushes up out of the skin. It’s the
grasshopper. It is climbing out of its own skin!

All the many-legged creatures change skins many times during their
lives. In­sects, spiders, crabs, and lobsters all do it. For a few hours
after changing skins, the new skins are soft. Then they turn hard like
one of your fingernails.

In summer you may see what looks like a dead insect clinging to a twig
or plant stem. It’s an empty skin that an insect has grown out of and
left behind.

This grasshopper has grown too big for its baby skin. The skin dries and
splits, and the grasshopper climbs out of it.

The grasshopper’s new wings are tiny and crumpled. As the grasshopper
breathes, the wings fill with blood and stretch out.

The soft, new skin will become hard in a few hours. When the grasshopper
grows too big, it will change skins again.

Grasshopper