The Sacred Beetle and Others 



be exact, every four-and-fifty seconds, a dis- 

 charge takes place and the thread is length- 

 ened by three to four millimetres.^ At long 

 intervals, I employ my tweezers, remove the 

 cord and unroll the mass along a graduated 

 rule, in order to measure the amount pro- 

 duced. The total for twelve hours is 2.88 

 metres.^ As the meal and its necessary 

 complement, the work of the digestive 

 apparatus, went on for some time longer 

 after my last visit, paid at eight o'clock in 

 the evening by lantern-light, my Beetle must 

 have spun an unbroken stercoraceous cord 

 well over three yards in length. 



Given the diameter and the length of the 

 thread, it is easy to calculate its volume. 

 Nor is it difficult to arrive at the exact 

 volume of the insect by measuring the 

 quantity of water which it displaces when 

 immersed in a narrow cylinder. The 

 figures thus obtained are not devoid of 

 interest: they tell us that, at a single eating 

 bout. In a dozen hours, the Sacred Beetle 

 digests very nearly his own bulk in food. 

 What a stomach! And, above all, what 

 rapidity, what power of digestion! From 

 the very first mouthfuls, the residuum forms 



i.ii to .15 inches. — Translator's Note. 

 2 Close upon 9^/^ feet. — Translator's Note. 

 78 



