More Beetles 



whether musical notes or noises. It has 

 those of its own little world, apart from 

 which other sound-waves possess no value. 



In the first fortnight of July, the male 

 Pine-chafers observed in the vivarium with- 

 draw to one side, sometimes bury themselves 

 and die quite peacefully, killed by age. The 

 mothers, on the other hand, busy themselves 

 with laying their eggs, or, more accurately, 

 with sowing them. They poke the soil with 

 the tip of their abdomen, shaped like a blunt 

 ploughshare, sinking into it sometimes al- 

 together, sometimes to their shoulders. 

 The eggs, to the number of a score, are laid 

 separately, one by one, in little round cavities 

 the size of a pea. They receive no further 

 attention. They are positively dibbled into 

 the ground. 



This method recalls the arachis, the 

 African^ Leguminosa, which curls its floral 

 peduncles and thrusts its oleaginous seeds 

 with their nutty flavour, underground to 

 germinate. It reminds us too of a plant of 



1 1 do not wish to correct the author; but I find that 

 all the books of reference in my possession describe the 

 pea-nut {Arachis hypogea) as a native of Brazil and I 

 am inclined to think that African, in the French edition, 

 may be a misprint for American. — Translator's Note. 



210 



