The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



metre thick; ■ a plug of poplar, very much 

 softened by decay; a circular disk of sound 

 wood. Most of my captives easily pierce 

 the cork and the soft wood; these represent 

 to them the barricade to be overthrown, the 

 bark curtain to be perforated. A few, how- 

 ever, succumb before the front to be attacked ; 

 and all perish, after fruitless attempts, be- 

 fore the disk of hard wood. Thus perished 

 the strongest of them all, the Great Capri- 

 corn, in my artificial oak-wood cells and even 

 in my reed-stumps closed with their natural 

 partitions. 



They have not the strength, or rather the 

 patient art; and the larva, more highly gifted, 

 works for them. It gnaws with indomi- 

 table perseverance, an essential to success 

 even for the strong; it digs with amazing 

 foresight. It knows the future shape of the 

 adult, whether round or oval, and bores the 

 exit-passage accordingly, making it cylin- 

 drical in one case and elliptical in the other. 

 It knows that the adult is very impatient to 

 reach the light; and it leads her thither by the 

 shortest way. In its wandering life in the 

 heart of the tree, it loves low-roofed, wind- 

 ing tunnels, just big enough to pass through, 

 or widening into stations when it strikes a 



1 .39 inch. — Translator's Note. 

 220 



