The Cetonia-larva 



and encrust them one by one in the silky net- 

 work, and completes the performance with a 

 cap fitting the entrance to the trap. This 

 provides a circular line of kast resistance, 

 along which the casket breaks open after- 

 wards. If the Scolia really works in the 

 same manner, everything is explained: the 

 eel-trap, while still open, enables it to soak 

 with varnish both the inside and the outside 

 of the inner shell, which has to acquire the 

 consistenQy of parchment; lastly, the cap 

 which completes and closes the structure 

 leaves for the future a circular line capable 

 of splitting easily and neatly. 



This is enough on the subject of the Sco- 

 iia-grub. Let us go back to its provender, 

 of whose remarkable structure we as yet 

 know nothing. In order that it may be con- 

 sumed with the delicate anatomical discre- 

 tion imposed by the necessity of having fresh 

 food to the last, the Cetonia-grub must be 

 plunged into a state of absolute immobility: 

 any twitchings on its part — as the experi- 

 ments which I have undertaken go to prove 

 — would discourage our nibbling larva and 

 impede the work of carving, which has to 

 be effected with so much circumspection. It 

 is not enough for the victim to be unable to 

 move from place to place beneath the soil: 

 87 



