146 FABKE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



bodies, the ring of metallic objects, the grating of a file upon 

 a saw, were tried in vain. The animal remained impassive : 

 not a wince, not a movement of the skin, no sign of awakened 

 attention. I succeeded no better when I scratched the wood 

 near it with a hard point, to imitate the sound of some other 

 grub at work in its neighbourhood. The indifference to my noisy 

 tricks could be no greater in a lifeless object. The animal is deaf. 



Can it smell ? Everything tells us that it cannot. Scent 

 is of assistance in the search for food. But the Capricorn- 

 grub need not go in quest of eatables. It feeds on its home ; 

 it lives on the wood that gives it shelter. Nevertheless I 

 tested it. In a log of fresh cypress wood I made a groove of 

 the same width as that of the natural galleries, and I placed 

 the grub inside it. Cypress wood is strongly scented ; it has 

 the smell characteristic of most of the pine family. This 

 resinous scent, so strange to a grub that lives always in oak, 

 ought to vex it, to trouble it ; and it should show its dis- 

 pleasure by some kind of commotion, some attempt to get 

 away. It did nothing of the kind : once it had found the 

 right position in the groove it went to the end, as far as it 

 could go, and made no further movement. Then I set before 

 it, in its usual channel, a piece of camphor. Again no effect. 

 Camphor was followed by naphthaline. Still no result. I do 

 not think I am going too far when I deny the creature a sense 

 of smell. 



Taste is there, no doubt. But such taste ! The food is 

 without variety : oak, for three years at a stretch, and nothing 

 else. What can the grub's palate find to enjoy in this mono- 

 tonous fare ? The agreeable sensation of a fresh piece, oozing 

 with sap ; the uninteresting flavour of an over-dry piece. 

 These, probably, are the only changes in the meal. 



There remains the sense of touch, the universal passive 

 sense common to all live flesh that quivers under the goad of 

 pain. The Capricorn-grub, therefore, is limited to two senses, 

 those of taste and touch, and both these it possesses only in 

 a very small degree. It is very little better off than Con- 



