The Vegetarian Insects 



rowly limited, to the point of refusing the 

 close equivalent of the thing accepted. 



Lest we lose our way in the inextricable 

 throng at the entomological banquet let us 

 consider separately our two Capricorns, 

 Cerambyx heros and C cerdo. No two 

 creatures could be more alike than these two 

 long-horned Beetles; the lesser is the very 

 picture of the greater. Let us also consider 

 the three Saperdae mentioned above. They 

 are the same shape, as though they had been 

 turned out of similar moulds, so much so that 

 we should confound them if differences of 

 size and above all of colour did not proclaim 

 them to be of separate species. 



The theorists tell us that our two Capri- 

 corns and their congeners spring from a com- 

 mon stock, ramified in various directions by 

 the action of the centuries. In the same 

 way, our three Saperdae and the others are 

 variations of a primitive type. The ances- 

 tors of the Capricorns, the Saperdae and the 

 Longicorns in general are in their turn de- 

 scended from a remote precursor, who her- 

 self was descended from etc., etc. One more 

 plunge into the darkness of the past and we 

 235 



