The Capricorn 



other; in the deserted chambers and vesti- 

 bules, Megachiles have arranged their leafy- 

 jars; in the live wood, filled with juicy 

 saps, the larvae of the Capricorn (Cerambyx 

 miles), the chief author of the oak's undo- 

 ing, have set up their home. 



Strange creatures, of a verity, are these 

 grubs, for an insect of superior organization: 

 bits of intestines crawling about! At this 

 time of year, the middle of autumn, I meet 

 them of two different ages. The older are 

 almost as thick as one's finger; the others 

 hardly attain the diameter of a pencil. I 

 find, in addition, pupae more or less fully 

 coloured, perfect insects, with a distended 

 abdomen, ready to leave the trunk when the 

 hot weather comes again. Life inside the 

 wood, therefore, lasts three years. How is 

 this long period of solitude and captivity 

 spent? In wandering lazily through the 

 thickness of the oak, in making roads whose 

 rubbish serves as food. The horse in Job 

 swallows the ground * in a figure of speech; 

 the Capricorn's grub eats its way literally. 

 With its carpenter's-gouge, a strong black 



1 " Chafing and raging, he swalloweth the ground, 

 neither doth he make account when the noise of the 

 trumpet soundeth." — Job, xxxix, 23 (Douai version). — 

 Translator's Note. 



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