The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



If fresh materials were added, obviously 

 the jar would gain in size at the cost of 

 thickness. The shell would become too thin, 

 by dint of being turned in order to make 

 space, and would sooner or later lack the 

 requisite solidity. The grub guards against 

 that. It has in front of it as much earth as 

 it can wish for ; it keeps putty in a back-shop; 

 and the factory which produces it never 

 slacks work. There is nothing to prevent it 

 from thickening the structure at will and 

 adding as much material as it thinks proper 

 to the inner scrapings from the shell. 



Invariably clad in a garment that is an ex- 

 act fit, neither too loose nor too tight, the 

 grub, when the cold weather comes, closes the 

 mouth of its earthenware jar with a lid of 

 the same mixed compound, a paste of earth 

 and stercoral cement. It then turns round 

 and makes its preparations for the meta- 

 morphosis, with its head at the back of the 

 pot and its stern near the entrance, which will 

 not be opened again. It reaches the adult 

 stage in April and May, when the ilex be- 

 comes covered with tender shoots, and 

 emerges from its shell by breaking open the 

 hinder end. Now come the days of revelry 

 on the leafage, in the mild morning sun. 



The Clythra's jar is a piece of work en- 

 458 



