THE CAPRICORN 153 



corn of the Oak, while the latter imitates the Capricorn of the 

 Cherry-tree. 



The poplar-tree is also inhabited by the Bronze Buprestis, 

 which takes no defensive measures before going to sleep. It 

 makes no barricade, no heap of shavings. And in the apricot- 

 tree the Nine-spotted Buprestis behaves in the same way. 

 In this case the grub is inspired by its intuitions to alter its 

 plan of work to suit the coming Beetle. The perfect insect 

 is a cylinder ; the grub is a strap, a ribbon. The former, 

 which wears unyielding armour, needs a cylindrical passage ; 

 the latter needs a very low tunnel, with a roof that it can 

 reach with the pads on its back. The grub therefore changes 

 its manner of boring : yesterday the gallery, suited to a wander- 

 ing life in the thickness of the wood, was a wide burrow with 

 a very low ceiling, almost a slot ; to-day the passage is cylin- 

 drical. A gimlet could not bore it more accurately. This sudden 

 change in the system of roadmaking on behalf of the coming 

 insect once more shows us the foresight of this ' bit of intestine. 5 



I could tell you of many other wood-eaters. Their tools 

 are the same ; yet each species displays special methods, 

 tricks of the trade that have nothing to do with the tools. 

 These grubs, then, like so many insects, show us that instinct 

 is not made by the tools, so to speak, but that the same tools 

 may be used in various ways. 



To continue the subject would be monotonous. The general 

 rule stands out very clearly from these facts : the wood-eating 

 grubs prepare the path of deliverance for the perfect insect, 

 which will merely have to pass a barricade of shavings or 

 pierce a screen of bark. By a curious reversal of the usual 

 state of things, infancy is here the season of energy, of strong 

 tools, of stubborn work ; mature age is the season of leisure, 

 of industrial ignorance, of idle diversions, without trade or 

 profession. The providence of the human infant is the mother ; 

 here the baby grub is the mother's providence. With its 

 patient tooth, which neither the peril of the outside world nor 

 the difficult task of boring through hard wood is able to dis- 

 courage, it clears a way for her to the supreme delights of the sun. 



u 



