The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



But a mass of this description is beyond the 

 strength of the modeller, is badly handled 

 and betrays, in its shape, the awkwardness 

 attendant on an over-difficult task. If the 

 material be rare, the insect confines its har- 

 vesting to what is strictly necessary; and then, 

 freer in its movements, it obtains a mag- 

 nificently regular gourd. 



The loam is probably first kneaded into a 

 ball and then scooped out into a large and 

 very thick cup by the pressure of the fore- 

 legs and the work of the forehead. Even 

 thus do the Copris and the Sacred Beetle act 

 when preparing, on the top of their round 

 pill, the bowl in which the egg will be laid 

 before the final manipulation of the ovoid or 

 pear. 



In this first business, the Phanasus is sim- 

 ply a potter. So long as it be plastic, any 

 clay serves her turn, however meagrely 

 saturated with the juices running from the 

 carcase. 



She now becomes a pork-butcher. With 

 her toothed knife, she carves, she saws some 

 tiny shreds from the rotten animal; she 

 tears off, cuts away what she deems best 

 suited to the grub's entertainment. She col- 

 lects all these fragments and mixes them with 

 choice loam in the spots where the sanies 

 258 



