More Beetles 



past for feats of gastric prowess. Very 

 soon my boarders grow indifferent to food. 

 I surprise them in nuptial embraces, a sign 

 that egg-laying is near at hand. In antici- 

 pation of events, I have placed in the cage, 

 level with the soil, a pot full of dead, half- 

 rotten leaves. About the summer solstice I 

 see them enter it, one by one, remaining in 

 it for some little time. Then, having fin- 

 ished their business, they return to the sur- 

 face. For a week or two longer, they wan- 

 der about, finally hiding themselves in the 

 sand, at no great depth, and dying. 



Their successors are in the pot of rotten 

 leaves. Before the end of June I find, in the 

 tepid mass, plenty of recent eggs and very 

 young larvas. I now have the explanation 

 of a peculiarity which caused me some con- 

 fusion at the time of my earlier studies. 

 When rummaging through the big heap of 

 leaf-mould which, in a shady corner of the 

 garden, provides me yearly with a rich col- 

 ony of Cetoniae, I used to find, under my 

 trowel, in July and August, intact cocoons 

 which would soon split open under the 

 thrust of the insect inside; I also found the 

 adult Cetonia, who had emerged from her 

 strong-box that very day, and quite close to 



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