108 THE LIFE AND LOVE OF THE INSECT 



according to the richness of the vein. There are no 

 precise limits here. If the plastic material abound, the 

 collector is lavish with it and the provision-box becomes 

 all the more solid. Then enormous calabashes are ob- 

 tained, exceed- 

 ing a hen's egg 

 in voliune and 

 formed of an 

 outer wall a 

 couple of centi- 

 metres thick. ^ 

 But a mass of 

 this description 

 is beyond the 

 strength of the 

 modeller, is 

 badly handled 

 and betrays, m 

 its outlme, the 

 clumsiness of an 

 over-d ifficult 

 task. If the 

 material be 

 rare, the insect 

 confines its har- 

 vesting to what 

 is strictly neces- 

 movements, it obtains a 



Fig. 10.— Work of Plianteus Milo : the largest of tlie 

 gourds observed (natural size). 



sary ; and then, freer in its 

 magnificently regular gourd. 



The loam is probably first kneaded into a ball and then 

 scooped out into a large and very thick cup, by means of 

 the pressure of the fore-legs and the work of the shield. 



^ 78 inch. — Translator's Note. 



