The Vegetarian Insects 



With the sumptuous provision which I 

 had bestowed upon them, the Geotrupes had 

 had plenty wherewith to attend to their do- 

 mestic affairs. They were overlooked all the 

 winter, without any further intervention on 

 my part. On the approach of spring, curios- 

 ity impelled me, in a leisure moment, to in- 

 spect them. It had been raining as hard 

 through the sides of the cage, which consisted 

 of a metal trellis, as it had in the streets; and, 

 as the water could not trickle away through 

 the wooden floor, the soil in the vivarium 

 had turned to mud. 



The sausages of food prepared by the par- 

 ents were numerous, in spite of everything, 

 but in a shocking state. Soaked by the rain, 

 drenched to the very centre by continual in- 

 filtration, they fell into fragments if I moved 

 them. Nevertheless, each contained, in the 

 tattered chamber beneath it, an egg laid 

 about the end of autumn; and this egg, 

 spared by the ice-cold mud of winter, was so 

 plump, so healthy and glossy, that an immi- 

 nent hatching seemed evident. 



What shall I give the grubs when they 



come out? I dare not count on the remnants 



of the regulation sausages, reduced to bales 



of fibre by the rains. As well give the new- 



219 



