FABRES BOOK OF INSECTS 



lar maze, blocked with great heaps of wormed wood. 

 It grows constantly smaller and smaller as it approaches 

 the starting-point, because the larva entered the trunk 

 as slim as a tiny bit of straw, whereas to-day it is as 

 thick as one's finger. In its three years* wanderings it 

 always dug its gallery to fit the size of its body. Evi- 

 dently the road of the larva cannot be the Capricorn's 

 way out. His overgrown antennae, his long legs, his 

 inflexible armour-plates would find the narrow, winding 

 corridor impassable. The passage would have to be 

 cleared of its wormed wood, and, moreover, greatly en- 

 larged. It would be easier to attack the untouched 

 timber and dig straight ahead. Is the insect capable of 

 doing so? I determined to find out. 



I made some cavities of suitable size in some oak logs 

 that had been chopped in two, and in each of these cells 

 I placed a Capricorn that had just been transformed 

 from the grub. I then joined the two sides of the logs, 

 fastening them together with wire. When June came 

 I heard a sound of scraping inside the logs, and waited 

 anxiously to see if the Capricorns would appear. They 

 had hardly three-quarters of an inch to pierce. Yet not 

 one came out. On opening the logs I found all my cap- 

 tives dead. A pinch of sawdust represented all they 

 had done. 



I had expected more from their sturdy mandibles. 

 In spite of their boring-tools the hermits died for lack of 



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