The Life of the Caterpillar 



Another detail deserves attention just as 

 much as this enormous figure; and that is the 

 complete absence of a number of other genera 

 which are as passionately fond of small 

 corpses as are the Dermestes and Saprini. 

 My charnel-houses of Moles never fail to be 

 visited by the Silphse and Necrophori : Silpha 

 s'lmiata, Fabr, ; S. riigosa, LiN.; -S. obscura, 

 l^IN. ; Necrophorus vestigator, Hersch. The 

 reek of the dragon arum leaves them all in- 

 different. None of them is represented in the 

 ten flowers which I examine. 



Nor are any Diptera, those other devotees 

 of corruption. Several Flies, some grey or 

 bluey, others a metallic green, come up, it is 

 true, settle on the edge of the flower and even 

 find their way into the fetid wallet; but they 

 are almost immediately undeceived and fly 

 away. Only the Dermestes and Saprini stay 

 behind. Why ? 



My friend Bull, as decent a Dog as ever 

 lived, had this among many other eccentrici- 

 ties: if he found in the dust of the road the 

 dried up corpse of a Mole flattened under the 

 heels of the passers-by, mummified by the 

 heat of the sun, he would revel in rolling him- 

 self over it from the tip of his nose to the end 



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