The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



And it is not only in the grassy plains of 

 La Plata that the modellers of dung proceed 

 according to the principles usual over here; 

 we may say, without fear of being mistaken, 

 that the magnificent Copres of Ethiopia and 

 the big Sacred Beetles of Senegambia work 

 exactly like our own. 



The same similarity of industry exists in 

 other entomological series, however distant 

 their country. My books give details of a 

 Pelopaeus x in Sumatra, who is an ardent 

 Spider-huntress like our own, who builds 

 mud cells inside houses and who, like her, 

 is fond of the loose hangings of the window- 

 curtains for the shifting foundation of her 

 nests. They tell me of a Scolia 2 in Mada- 

 gascar who serves each of her grubs with a 

 fat rasher, an Oryctes-larva, 3 even as our 

 own Scolia; feed their family on prey of 

 similar organization, with a highly concen- 

 trated nervous system, such as the larvae of 

 Cetoniae, Anoxias and even Oryctes. They 



1 Cf. The Mason-wasps, by J. Henri Fabre, translated 

 by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chaps, iii. to vi. — 

 Translator's Note. 



2 The chapters on the Scoliae will appear in More 

 Hunting Wasps. Meanwhile, cf. The Life and Love of 

 the Insect, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander 

 Teixeira de Mattos : chap. xi. — Translator's Note. 



3 The larva of the Rhinoceros Beetle. — Translator's 

 Note. 



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