Cerocomae, Mylabres and Zonites 



also takes a gallant resolve and, like the fe- 

 male, begins to browse. You lucky creatures, 

 who, so as not to lose a moment of your four 

 or five weeks' existence, yoke together the 

 cravings of love and hunger ! Your motto 

 is, " A short life and a merry one." 



The Cerocoma, who is a golden green like 

 the Cantharides, seems to have partly 

 adopted the amorous rites of her rival in 

 dress. The male, always the elegant sex in 

 the insect tribe, wears special ornaments. 

 The horns or antennse, magnificently com- 

 plicated, form as it were two tufts of a thick 

 head of hair. It is to this that the name 

 Cerocoma refers: the creature crested with 

 its horns. When a bright sun shines into the 

 breeding-cage, it is not long before the in- 

 sects form couples on the bunch of everlast- 

 ings. Hoisted on the female, whom he em- 

 braces and holds with his two pairs of hind- 

 legs, the male sways his head and corselet 

 up and down, all in a piece. This oscillatory 

 movement has not the fiery precipitation of 

 that of the Cantharides; it is calmer and as 

 it were rhythmical. The abdomen more- 

 over remains motionless and seems unskilled 

 in those slaps, as of a washerwoman's bat, 

 which the amorous denizen of the ash-tree 

 so vigorously distributes with his belly. 

 169 



