More Beetles 



when the scientific spirit of research had not 

 yet come into being. Pliny artlessly repeats 

 the talk of the country folk of his day. 



I have much the same doubts about the 

 Cossi that put on flesh when fed with meal. 

 Still, the result is less incredible than that 

 alleged to take place in the Snail-park. As 

 a scrupulous observer, let me test the method. 

 I put a few grubs taken from the pines in a 

 glass jar full of flour. They receive no 

 other food. I expected to see the larvae, 

 smothered in that fine dust, dying quickly, 

 either suffocated by the obstruction of their 

 air-holes or perishing for lack of suitable 

 nourishment. 



Great was my mistake. Pliny was right: 

 the Cossi thrive in the flour and feed heartily 

 on it. I have before me some that have 

 spent a year in this environment. They eat 

 their way through it, scooping out corridors 

 and leaving behind them a brown paste, the 

 waste product of their digestive organs. 

 That they are actually fatter I cannot state 

 for a fact; but at least they have a magnifi- 

 cent appearance, no less imposing than that 

 of others which were kept in jars filled with 

 scraps of their native tree-stumps. The 

 flour is amply sufficient, if not to fatten them, 

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