More Beetles 



The favourite plant was one of the Rubla- 

 ces, the cheese-rennet {Galium verum)^ in 

 the stage of young shoots. Various other 

 plants were eaten no less readily on the way, 

 including especially Cichoriaceae such as 

 Pterotheca nemansensis, Chondrilla jubcea 

 or gum-succory, and cut-leaved podospermum 

 {P. laciniatum), and Leguminosas such as 

 Medicago falcata, or yellow medick and Tri- 

 folium repens, or white clover. The acrid 

 flavours did not in the least discourage the 

 flock. A Gerard's spurge was met with, 

 trailing its flower on the ground. A few 

 larvae stopped and nibbled the tender tops as 

 eagerly as the clover. In short, the fat crip- 

 pled larva varies its meal greatly. 



Examples abound of insects equally omniv- 

 orous of vegetable substances; there is no 

 need to linger over them. Let us pass on to 

 the exploiters of woody materials. The 

 larva of Ergates faber lives exclusively in de- 

 cayed pine-stumps; the hideous caterpillar of 

 the Moth inappropriately known as the Cos- 

 sus eats into old willow-trees, in company 

 with the iEgosoma. 



These two are specialists. 



The lesser Capricorn, Ceramhyx cerdo, en- 

 trusts her grubs to the hawthorn, the sloe, 

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