CHAPTER IV 



THE CETONIA-LARVA 



nr^HE Scolia's feeding-period lasts, on the 

 -■■ average, for a dozen days or so. By 

 then the victuals are no more than a crum- 

 pled bag, a skin emptied of the last scrap of 

 nutriment. A little earlier, the russet-yellow 

 tint announces the extinction of the last spark 

 of life in the creature that is being devoured. 

 The empty skin is pushed back to make 

 space; the dining-room, a shapeless cavity 

 with crumbling walls, is tidied up a little; 

 and the Scolia-grub sets to work on its co- 

 coon without further delay. 



The first courses form a general scaffold- 

 ing, which finds a support here and there on 

 the earthen walls, and consist of a rough, 

 blood-red fabric. When the larva is merely 

 laid, as required by my investigations, in a 

 hollow made with the finger-tip in the bed of 

 mould, it is not able to spin its cocoon, for 

 want of a ceiling to which to fasten the upper 

 threads of its network. To weave its co- 

 coon, every spinning larva is compelled to 

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