The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



their interment and install them in glass tubes 

 with a few tiny bits of paper which will serve 

 them as a prop. There is no sand, no build- 

 ing-material other than the creature's spittle 

 and my very few shreds of paper. Under 

 these conditions can the pill-shaped cell be 

 constructed? 



Yes, it can; and without much difficulty. 

 Supporting itself partly on the glass, partly 

 on the paper, the larva begins to slaver all 

 around it, to froth copiously. After a spell 

 of some hours, it has disappeared within a 

 solid shell. This is white as snow and 

 highly porous; it might almost be a globule 

 of whipped albumen. Thus, to stick to- 

 gether the sand in its pill-shaped nest, the 

 larva employs a frothy albuminous substance. 



Let us now dissect the builder. Around 

 the oesophagus, which is fairly long and soft, 

 are no salivary glands, no silk-tubes. The 

 frothy cement is therefore neither silk nor 

 saliva. One organ forces itself upon our at- 

 tention : it is the crop, which is very capacious, 

 and dilated with irregular protuberances that 

 put it out of shape. It is filled with a col- 

 ourless, viscous fluid. This is certainly the 

 raw material of the frothy spittle, the glue 

 that binds the grains of sand together and 

 consolidates them into a spherical whole. 

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