The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



would have a similar diet. But I leave it to 

 Dr. Beauregard to elucidate this important 

 characteristic. 



The riddle is deciphered: the Meloid 

 that eats Praying Mantes is Schaeffer's Cero- 

 coma, of whom I find plenty, in the spring, 

 on the blossoms of the everlasting. When- 

 ever I see it, my attention is attracted by an 

 unusual peculiarity: the great difference of 

 size that is able to exist between one speci- 

 men and another, albeit of the same sex. I 

 see stunted creatures, females as well as 

 males, which are barely one third the length 

 of their better-developed companions. The 

 Twelve-spotted Mylabris and the Four- 

 spotted Mylabris present differences quite as 

 pronounced in this respect. 



The cause which makes a dwarf or a giant 

 of the same insect, irrespective of its sex, 

 can be only the smaller or greater quantity 

 of food. If the larva, as I suspect, is obliged 

 to find the Tachytes' game-larder for itself 

 and to visit a second and a third, when the 

 first is too frugally furnished, it may be 

 imagined that the hazard of the road does 

 not favour all in the same way, but rather 

 allots abundance to one and penury to an- 

 other. The grub that does not eat its fill 

 remains small, while the one that gluts itself 

 162 



