The Sacred Beetle and Others 



inversion, occupies the upper surface. A 

 huge hump and a trowel : that gives you the 

 insect in two words. 



In his Histoire natiirelle des coleopteres 

 de France, Mulsant describes the larva of 

 the Sacred Beetle. He tells us with 

 meticulous detail the number and shape of 

 the joints of the palpi and antennae; he sees 

 the hypopygium ^ and its pointed bristles; he 

 sees a multitude of things in the domain of 

 the microscope; and he does not see the 

 monstrous knapsack that takes up almost 

 half the insect, nor does he see the strange 

 configuration of the last segment. There is 

 not a doubt in my mind that the writer of 

 this minute description has made a mistake: 

 the larva of which he speaks is nothing like 

 that of the Sacred Beetle, 



We must not finish the history of the grub 

 without saying a few words about its internal 

 structure. Anatomy will show us the works 

 wherein the cement employed in so eccentric 

 a manner is manufactured. The stomach or 

 chylific ventricle is a long, thick cylinder, 

 starting from the creature's neck after a very 

 short oesophagus. It measures about three 

 times the insect's length. In its last quarter, 



1 The last ventral segment of the abdomen. — Translator's 

 Note. 



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