THE SACRED BEETLE 41 



the tool does not make the workman. The insect exerts 

 its gifts as a specialist with any kind of tool where- 

 with it is supplied. It can saw with a plane or plane 

 with a saw, like the model workman of whom Franklin 

 tells us. The same strong-toothed rake with which 

 the Sacred Beetle rips the earth is used by her as a 

 trowel and brush wherewith to glaze the stucco of the 

 chamber in which the grub will be born. 



In conclusion, one more detail concerning this hatching- 

 chamber. At the extreme end of the neck of the pear, 

 one point is always pretty clearly distinguished : it 

 bristles with stringy fibres, while the rest of the neck 

 is carefully polished. This is the plug with which the 

 mother has closed the narrow opening after placing the 

 egg ; and this plug, as its hairy structure shows, has 

 not been subjected to the pressure which, throughout 

 the rest of the work, crams the smallest projecting scrap 

 into the mass and causes it to disappear. 



Why this arrangement at the extreme pole, a very 

 curious exception, when every elsewhere the pear has 

 received the powerful blows of the insect's foot ? 

 The hind-end of the egg rests against this plug, which, 

 were it pressed down and driven in, would transmit 

 the pressure to the germ and imperil its safety. The 

 mother, aware of the risk, blocks up the hole without 

 rammmg the stopper : the air in the hatching-chamber 

 is thus more easily renewed ; and the egg escapes the 

 dangerous concussion of the compressing paddle. 



6 



