The Cetoniae 



these I would find very young larvae, which 

 had only just made their appearance. I had 

 before my eyes the crazy paradox of children 

 born before their parents. 



The breeding-cage has cleared up these 

 obscure points completely. It has taught 

 me that the Cetonia, in the adult form, lives 

 through a whole year and the summer of 

 the following year. The cocoon is broken 

 during the summer heats of July and August. 

 The regular thing would be, provided the 

 season were propitious, to think at once of 

 the family, after indulging in a few nuptial 

 frolics. This is the general rule among 

 other insects. For them the present form 

 is an efflorescence of brief duration, which 

 the needs of the future employ as quickly 

 as may. 



The Cetonia does not display this haste. 

 She was a gross eater in her days of pot-bel- 

 lied grubhood; she remains a gross eater be- 

 neath the splendour of her adult cuirass. 

 She spends her life, so long as the heat is not 

 too overwhelming, in the jam-factory of the 

 orchard: apricots, pears, peaches, figs and 

 plums. Lingering over her meal, she for- 

 gets all else and defers her egg-laying to the 

 following year. 



13 



