The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



go to work gently, the creature subjected to 

 them adapts itself as best it can, but invinci- 

 bly refuses to cease to be what it is. It must 

 live in the form of the mould whence it is- 

 sued, or it must die: there is no other al- 

 ternative. 



Instinct, one of the higher characteristics, 

 is no less rebellious to the injunctions of en- 

 vironment than are the organs, which serve 

 its activity. Innumerable guilds divide the 

 work of the entomological world; and each 

 member of one of these corporations is sub- 

 ject to rules which not climate, nor latitude, 

 nor the most serious disturbances of diet are 

 able to alter. 



Look at the Dung-beetles of the pampas. 

 At the other end of the world, in their vast 

 flooded pastures, so different from our scanty 

 greenswards, they follow, without notable 

 variations, the same methods as their col- 

 leagues in Provence. A profound change of 

 surroundings in no way effects the funda- 

 mental industry of the group. 



Nor do the provisions available affect it. 

 The staple food to-day is matter of bovine 

 origin. But the Ox is a newcomer in the 

 land, an importation of the Spanish conquest. 

 What did the Megathopae, the Bolites, the 

 Splendid Phanaeus eat and knead, before the 

 268 



