The Sacred Beetle and Others 



A more or less enquiring glance is quite 

 surprised to find so small a germ contained 

 in so large a box. What does the tiny egg 

 want with all that space? When carefully 

 examined within, the walls of the chamber 

 suggest another question. They are coated 

 with a fine greenish pap, semifluid and shiny, 

 the appearance of which does not agree with 

 either the external or internal aspect of the 

 lump from which the insect has extracted its 

 materials. A similar lime-wash is observed 

 in the nest which the Scarab, the Copris, the 

 Sisyphus, the Geotrupes and other makers of 

 stercoraceous preserves contrive in the very 

 heart of the provisions, to receive the egg; 

 but nowhere have I seen it so plentiful, in 

 proportion, as in the hatching-chamber of the 

 Onthophagus. Long puzzled by this brothy 

 wash, of which the Sacred Beetle provided 

 me with the first instance, I at one time took 

 the thing for a layer of moisture oozing from 

 the bulk of the victuals and collecting on the 

 surface of the enclosure without other effort 

 than capillary action. That was the in- 

 terpretation which I accepted in various 

 passages relating to this varnish. 



I was wrong. The truth is something 

 much more remarkable. To-day, better-in- 

 formed by the Onthophagus, I reopen the 

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