More Beetles 



This last Beetle, being easily reared with 

 slices of pear for food and sticks of wood in 

 which to establish her family, lends herself 

 to an experiment of some interest. 



I collect the eggs which the mother's 

 pointed, groping oviduct has slipped into the 

 irregular crevices of the bark. The number 

 obtained enables me to make a variety of 

 tests. Will the new-born larvae accept the 

 first wood that offers after they are hatched. 

 That is the problem. 



I select freshly-cut billets measuring two 

 or three fingers'-breadths in diameter. 

 They include the ilex, elm, lime, robinia, 

 cherry, willow, elder, lilac, fig, laurel and 

 pine. To avoid falls, which would confuse 

 the newborn grubs if they had to wander 

 about in search of the spot at which to bore, 

 I do my best to imitate the natural condi- 

 tions. The mother Capricorn lodges her 

 eggs, one at a time, here and there in the fis- 

 sures of the bark, fixing them with a thin var- 

 nish. I cannot gum the eggs in this way : my 

 glue would perhaps endanger the vitality of 

 the egg; but I can resort to the firm support 

 of a furrow. With the point of a penknife 

 I make this furrow, that is to say, a tiny cleft 

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