The Clythrae: The Egg 



lessly, here and there, from the top of the 

 bough where she is refreshing herself by 

 soberly notching some tender leaf. The 

 Taxicorn Clythra fits a long stalk to her eggs 

 and fixes them in clusters on the foliage. 

 While I cannot yet make up my mind, in the 

 absence of direct observation, whether the 

 new-born larva cuts the suspension-thread 

 itself, or whether the thread is broken merely 

 as a result of drying up, sooner or later these 

 eggs are lying on the ground, like the others. 



The same thing must happen outside my 

 cages : the eggs of the Clythrae and the Cryp- 

 tocephali are scattered over the ground be- 

 neath the tree or plant on which the adult 

 feeds. 



Now what do we find under the shelter of 

 the oak? Turf, dead leaves, more or less 

 pickled by decay, dry twigs cased in lichens, 

 broken stones with cushions of moss and, 

 lastly, mould, the final residue of vegetable 

 matters wrought upon by time. Under the 

 tufts of the centaury on which the Golden 

 Cryptocephalus browses lies a black bed of 

 the miscellaneous refuse of the plant. 



I try a little of everything, but nothing an- 

 swers my expectations very positively. I ob- 

 serve, nevertheless, that a few disdainful 

 mouthfuls are taken, a little bit here, a little 



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