The Life of the Weevil 



employed is strikingly ingenious. While on 

 this subject, let us recall the wonderful 

 devices of the Dung-Beetles. 



The Sacred Beetle models her grub's loaf 

 in the form of a pear; the Spanish Copris ^ 

 shapes it like an egg. It is compact, homo- 

 geneous and as air-tight as stucco-work. To 

 breathe in these lodgings would unquestion- 

 ably be a very difficult thing; but the danger 

 is provided against. Look at the small end 

 of the pear and the top of the ovoid. After 

 ever so little reflection, you will be seized 

 with surprise and admiration. 



There — and there only — you will see, not 

 the air-tight paste of the rest of the work, 

 but a stringy plug, a disk of coarse velvet 

 bristling with tiny fibres, a round piece of 

 loosely-made felt through which the gaseous 

 exchanges can be effected. A filter takes the 

 place of the solid material. The mere 

 appearance is enough to tell us the function 

 of this part. If doubts occurred to our 

 minds, here is something to dispel them : I 

 cover the fibrous expanse with several coats 

 of varnish; I deprive the filter of its porous- 



1 Cf. The Sacred Beetle and Others: chaps, ix. and 

 X. — Translator's Note. 



224 



