The Life of the Caterpillar 



has been this way; with his delicate scent he 

 has recognized the site as good, for the bur- 

 rows are numerous hereabouts. We will 

 therefore dig near the holes. The clue is ac- 

 curate. In a few hours, thanks to the tracks 

 left by the Bolboceras, I possess a handful of 

 hydnocystes. It is the first time that I have 

 gathered this particular fungus. Let us now 

 catch the insect. That presents no difficult- 

 ies : we have only to dig up the burrows. 



I make my experiments the same evening, 

 filling a large earthen pan with fresh, sifted 

 sand. With a stick as thick as my finger, I 

 make six vertical tunnels in the sand, two 

 decimetres^ deep and placed at a suitable dis- 

 tance apart. A hydnocystis is lowered to the 

 bottom of each; and I insert a fine straw, to 

 show me the exact position later. Lastly, I 

 fill up the six cavities with caked sand. When 

 this surface has been carefully smoothed, so 

 that the level is everywhere the same, except 

 for the six straws, landmarks that mean no- 

 thing to the Bolboceras, I let loose my cap- 

 tives, covering them with a wire-gauze cage. 

 There are eight of them. 



At first there is nothing to see save the in- 



* 7.8 inches. — Translator's Note. 



316 



