The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



of masculine dandyism among the Dung- 

 beetles of La Plata as among our own. 



Now what can the gorgeous foreigner do? 

 Precisely what the Lunary Copris ^ does with 

 us. Settling, like the other, under a flat cake 

 of Cow-dung, the South American Beetle 

 kneads egg-shaped loaves underground. 

 Not a thing is forgotten : the round belly 

 with the largest volume and the smallest sur- 

 face; the hard rind which acts as a pre- 

 servative against premature desiccation; the 

 terminal nipple where the egg is lodged in a 

 hatching-chamber; and, at the end of the 

 nipple, the felt stopper which admits the air 

 needed by the germ. 



All these things I have seen here and I 

 see over there, almost at the other end of 

 the world. Life, ruled by inflexible logic, 

 repeats itself in its works, for what is true 

 in one latitude cannot be false in another. 

 We go very far afield in search of a new 

 spectacle to meditate upon; and we have an 

 inexhaustible specimen before our eyes, be- 

 tween the walls of our enclosure. 



Settled under the sumptuous dish dropped 

 by the Ox, the Phanseus, one would think, 

 ought to make the very best use of it and 



1 Cf. The Sacred Beetle and Others: chap. xvi. — Trans- 

 lator's Note. 



240 



