The Spotted Larinus 



afford the luxury of a perfect cocoon, have 

 the knack of felting their hairs with a little 

 silk. The Larinus-grub, that poverty- 

 stricken creature, having no spinning-mill, 

 must have recourse to its intestine, Its only 

 stand-by. 



This stercoral method proves once more 

 that necessity is the mother of invention. 

 To build a luxurious palace with one's ordure 

 is a most meritorious device. Only an insect 

 would be capable of it. For that matter, 

 the Larinus has no monopoly of this archi- 

 tectural style, which is not described in 

 Vitruvius.^ Many other larvae, better- 

 furnished with building-materials — those of 

 the Onites, the Onthophagi,^ the Cetonias,^ 

 for example — greatly excel it in the beauty 

 of their excremental edifices. 



When completed, on the approach of the 

 nymphosis, the abode of the Larinus is an 

 oval cell measuring fifteen millimetres in 



1 Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (/?. ist century B. c.) the Ro- 

 man architect and engineer, author of De Architectura. — 

 Translator's Note. 



^ For the Onitis and Onthophagus Dung-beetles, tf. The 

 Sacred Beetles and Others: chapters xi. and xiv. to xviii. 

 — Translator's Note. 



-Rose-chafers. Cf. More Hunting Wasps: chap. iv. — 

 Translator's Note. 



45 



