The Sacred Beetle and Others 



rested in their development. They give one 

 the impression of lifeless stumps. Their 

 length is hardly a third of that of the others. 

 More remarkable still, instead of pointing 

 downwards like the normal legs, they shrivel 

 upwards, turning towards the back, and 

 remain indefinitely in that queer attitude, 

 twisted and stiff. I cannot succeed in seeing 

 the animal make the slightest use of them. 

 Nevertheless they show the same joints as the 

 others; but this is all on a greatly reduced 

 scale, pale and inert. In short, a couple of 

 words will distinguish the Geotrupes' larva 

 without any possibility of confusion : hind-legs 

 atrophied. 



This feature is so plain, so striking, so 

 extraordinary that the least observant among 

 us cannot mistake it. A grub crippled by 

 nature and so evidently crippled enforces it- 

 self on our attention. What do the books 

 say about it? Nothing, so far as I know. 

 The few which I have with me are silent on 

 this point. Mulsant, it is true, described the 

 larva of the Stercoraceous Geotrupes; but he 

 makes no mention of its exceptional structure. 

 In his anxiety to describe the minutest details 

 of the organism, has he lost sight of this mon- 

 strosity? Labrum, palpi, antennae, the num- 

 ber of joints, the hairs: all this is set down 

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