182 FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



and examined them within and without : my lens explored 

 their innermost recesses, the sleeping larva, and the walls. 

 Nothing, nothing, nothing ! For a fortnight and more nests 

 were searched and rejected, and heaped up in a corner. My 

 study was crammed with them. In vain I ripped up the 

 cocoons ; I found nothing. It needed the sturdiest faith to 

 make me persevere. 



At last I saw, or seemed to see, something move on the 

 Bee's larva. Was it an illusion ? Was it a bit of down stirred 

 by my breath ? It was not an illusion ; it was not a bit of 

 down ; it was really and truly a grub ! But at first I thought 

 the discovery unimportant, because I was so greatly puzzled 

 by the little creature's appearance. 



In a couple of days I was the owner of ten such worms, 

 and had placed each of them in a glass tube, together with 

 the Bee-grub on which it wriggled. It was so tiny that the 

 least fold of skin concealed it from my sight. After watching 

 it one day through the lens I sometimes failed to find it again 

 on the morrow. I would think it was lost : then it would 

 move, and become visible once more. 



For some time the belief had been growing in me that the 

 Anthrax had two larval forms, a first and a second, the second 

 being the form I knew, the grub we have already seen at its 

 meals. Was this new discovery, I asked myself, the first 

 form ? Time showed me that it was. For at last I saw my 

 little worms transform themselves into the grub I have already 

 described, and make their first start at draining their victims 

 with kisses. A few moments of satisfaction like those I then 

 enjoyed make up for many a weary hour. 



This tiny worm, the first form or ' primary larva ' of the 

 Anthrax, is very active. It tramps over the fat sides of its 

 victim, walking all round it. It covers the ground pretty 

 quickly, buckling and unbuckling by turns, very much after 

 the manner of the Looper-caterpillar. Its two ends are its 

 chief points of support. When walking it swells out, and then 

 looks like a bit of knotted string. It has thirteen rings or 



