The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



which protects this mystery, we recognize, 

 not without astonishment, that we have be- 

 fore our eyes a new larva similar to the 

 secondary. After one of the strangest 

 transformations, the creature has gone back 

 to its second form. To describe the new 

 larva is unnecessary, for it differs from the 

 former in only a few slight details. In both 

 there is the same head, with its various ap- 

 pendages barely outlined; the same vestiges 

 of legs, the same stumps transparent as 

 crystal. The tertiary larva differs from the 

 secondary only by its abdomen, which is less 

 fat, owing to the absolute emptiness of the 

 digestive apparatus; by a double chain of 

 fleshy cushions extending along each side; 

 by the rim of the stigmata, crystalline and 

 slightly projecting, but less so than in the 

 pseudochrysalis; by the ninth pair of breath- 

 ing-holes, hitherto rudimentary but now al- 

 most as large as the rest; lastly by the man- 

 dibles ending in a very sharp point. Evicted 

 from its twofold sheath, the tertiary larva 

 makes only very lazy movements of con- 

 traction and dilation, without being able to 

 advance, without even being able to main- 

 tain its normal position, because of the weak- 

 ness of its legs. It usually remains motion- 

 less, lying on its side, or else displays its 



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