More Beetles 



gloss over things as best we can, but let us 

 not shrink from the truth. 



The Cetonia-larva is about to build itself, 

 a strong-box in which the transformation, 

 the most delicate of tasks, will be accom- 

 plished; it is about to erect itself an enclosing 

 wall, I might almost say, to spin itself a co- 

 coon. The caterpillar, to weave its cocoon 

 withal, has silk-tubes and a spinneret. The 

 Cetonia-larva, which cannot make use of 

 outside things, has nothing at all, it would 

 seem. But this is a mistake. Its poverty- 

 is only apparent. Like the caterpillar, it 

 has secret reserves of building-materials; it 

 has even a spinneret, but at the other end of 

 its body. Its store of cement is its intestine. 



The grub was a mighty evacuator in its 

 active period, as is proved by the brown 

 granules which it has scattered in profusion 

 along its road. As the transformation ap- 

 proached, it became more moderate; it be- 

 gan to save up, amassing a hoard of paste 

 of a most fine and binding quality. Observe 

 the tip of its belly as it withdraws from the 

 world. You will see a wide dark patch. 

 This is the bag of cement showing through 

 its skin. This store, so well provided, tells 

 us plainly in what the artisan specializes: 

 28 



