The Anthrax 



is laid upon the nymph of the Anthrax. It is 

 the nymph that has to toil, to strive, to ex- 

 haust itself in efforts to burst the wall and 

 open the way out. To the embryo falls the 

 desperate duty, which shows no mercy to the 

 nascent flesh; to the adult insect the joy of 

 resting in the sun. This transposition of func- 

 tions has as its result a well-sinker's equipment 

 in the nymph, an eccentric, complicated equip- 

 ment which nothing suggested in the larva and 

 which nothing recalls in the perfect insect. 

 The set of tools includes an assortment of 

 ploughshares, gimlets, hooks and spears and 

 of other implements that are not found in our 

 trades nor named in our dictionaries. Let us 

 do our best to describe the strange piercing- 

 gear. 



In a fortnight at most, the Anthrax has 

 consumed the Chalicodoma-grub, whereof 

 naught remains but the skin, gathered into a 

 white granule. By the time that July is nearly 

 over, it becomes rare to find any nurselings 

 left upon their nurses. From this period 

 until the following May, nothing fresh hap- 

 pens. The Anthrax retains its larval shape 

 without any appreciable change and lies mo- 

 tionless in the Mason-bee's cocoon, beside the 

 pellet remains. When the fine days of May 



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