Further Observations 



August. Under the grub's digestive efforts, 

 the food-column, while retaining its form 

 and its dimensions, has been converted into a 

 paste whose origin it would be impossible to 

 recognize. There is not a crumb left in 

 which the microscope can detect a fibre. The 

 Sheep had already divided the vegetable 

 matter very finely; the grub, an incomparable 

 triturator, has taken the aforesaid matter 

 and subdivided it yet further, grinding it 

 after a fashion. In this way it extracts and 

 uses the nutritive particles of which the 

 Sheep's fourfold stomach is unable to take 

 advantage. 



To dig itself a cell in this unctuous mass 

 ought, according to our logic, to suit the 

 grub, desirous of a yielding mattress for the 

 nymph to lie on. We are mistaken in our 

 suppositions. The grub retreats to the 

 lower end of its column, retires into the sand 

 where the hatching took place and there 

 makes itself a hard, rough cavity. This 

 aberration, which takes no account of the 

 future nymph, and its delicate skin, would 

 be likely to surprise us if the homely dwelling 

 were not subjected to improvement. 



The hermit's wallet has retained a part of 

 the digestive residues, residues destined to 

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