More Beetles 



has drunk the cadaveric extract elaborated 

 by the grubs, a great deal remains that can- 

 not be liquefied or dried up by the heat. 

 Other workers are needed, who treat the 

 mummified carcase anew, nibbling at the 

 shrivelled muscles and tendons until the 

 relics are reduced to a heap of bones as clean 

 as ivory. 



The Dermestes are charged with this long 

 labour of gnawing. Two species come to 

 my earthenware pans at the same time as 

 the Saprini: D, undulatus, brahm., and D. 

 Frischii, Kugel. The first, striped with 

 fine, snow-white, wavy lines on a black 

 ground, has a red corselet speckled with 

 brown spots; the second, the larger of the 

 two, is dull black all over, with the sides of 

 the corselet powdered ashen grey. Both 

 wear white flannel underneath, which forms 

 a violent contrast with the rest of the cos- 

 tume and seems inconsistent with the insect's 

 calling. 



The Necrophorus,^ the burier of the dead, 

 has already shown us this propensity for soft 

 stuffs and the clash of discordant colours. 

 He covers his breast with a waistcoat of nan- 



1 Or Burying-beetle. Cf. The Glow-ivorm and Other 

 Beetles, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander 

 Teixeira de Mattos: chaps, xi and xii. — Translator's Note. 

 42 



