CHAPTER XIII 



THE GOLD BEETLES : THEIR FOOD 



A S I write the first lines of this chapter, 

 •^•^ I think of the Chicago slaughter-yards. 

 Those horrible meat-factories where, in the 

 course of the year, men cut up over a million 

 Bullocks and nearly two million Pigs, which, 

 entering the factory alive, come out at the 

 other end changed into tins of preserved 

 meat, lard, sausages and rolled hams. I 

 think of them because the Carabus, or 

 Ground-beetle, is about to show us a similar 

 swiftness in butchery. 



I have twenty-five Gold-beetles {Carabus 

 auratus, LiN.) in a large glass vivarium. At 

 present they are motionless, cowering under 

 a bit of board which I gave them as a shelter. 

 With their beUies cooled by the sand and 

 their backs warmed by the board, which is 

 visited by the searching rays of the sun, they 

 slumber and digest their food. By good 

 luck I chance upon a procession of Pine-cater- 

 pillars ^ descending from their tree in search 



1 Cf. The Life of the Caterpillar: chaps, i. to vi. — 

 Translator's Note. 



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