The Cetoniae 



us what goes on under ordinary conditions. 

 Without the aid of sight, we see the grub 

 evacuating at intervals and renewing its 

 store of cement ; we can follow it as it gath- 

 ers the clod with the tips of its mandibles, 

 squeezing it with its legs, dividing it to its 

 liking and spreading it with its mouth and 

 forehead on the weak spots of the wall. A 

 rolling motion of the rump gives it a polish. 

 Without borrowing any extraneous mate- 

 rials, the builder finds within itself the buil- 

 ding-stones of its edifice. 



A similar stercoral talent is the portion 

 of other big-bellied larvae, which wear 

 around their abdomen a wide brown sash, 

 the insignia of their craft. With the con- 

 tents of their intestinal wallet they build 

 the hut in which metamorphosis takes place. 

 All tells us of the high economy which 

 knows the secret of turning the abject into 

 the decent and of producing from a box of 

 ordure the Golden Cetonia, the guest of the 

 roses and the glory of the spring. 



33 



