More Beetles 



born larvae an old rope's-end. What is to be 

 done? We will resort to a crazy artifice 

 and serve a dish of our own invention, one 

 absolutely unknown to the Geotrupes. 



The mess prepared for my larvae is made 

 of leaves decaying on the ground: hazel-, 

 cherry-, mulberry-, elm-, quince-leaves and 

 others. I steep them in water to soften 

 them and then shred them like fine-cut to- 

 bacco. The egg is placed at the bottom of 

 a test-tube ; and I pack a column of my vege- 

 table mince-meat on the top. For purposes 

 of comparison, other eggs are similarly 

 lodged, but with a thankless ration of the 

 normal preserves soaked by the rains. 



Hatching occurs during the first week in 

 March. I have before my eyes, when it 

 leaves the egg, the larva which astonished 

 me so greatly when I first realized, many 

 years ago, that it was a cripple. In once 

 more referring to this strange abnormality, 

 I will confine myself to a few words on the 

 subject of the head, which is remarkably 

 bulky, swollen as it is by the motor muscles 

 of the mandibular shears with broad, flat 

 blades, notched at the tip and bearing a 

 strong spur at the base. It is enough to see 

 this dental armoury to recognize the new- 



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