The Sacred Beetle: the Larva 



admit a lead-pencil. The evil is worse still 

 with the Aphodius, whose family hatch, 

 develop and undergo their transformation 

 in the very heart of the provisions. My 

 notes contain descriptions of pears per- 

 forated in every direction, riddled with a 

 multitude of holes that serve for the escape 

 of the tiny dung-worker, a parasite in spite 

 of himself. 



With table-fellows such as these, who bore 

 ventilating-shafts in the provisions, the 

 Sacred Beetle's grub dies if the miners be 

 numerous. Its trowel and mortar cannot 

 cope with so great a task. They can cope 

 with it if the damage be slight and the in- 

 truders few. At once stopping up every 

 passage that opens around it, the grub holds 

 its own against the invader; it disgruntles him 

 and drives him away. The pear is saved 

 and preserved from internal desiccation. 



Various Cryptogamia have a finger in the 

 pie. They invade the fertile soil of the pill, 

 make it rise in scales, split it with fissures by 

 implanting their pustules. In its shell 

 cracked by this vegetation, the grub w^ould 

 die were it not for the safeguard of its 

 mortar, w^hich puts an end to these 

 desiccating vent-holes. 



It puts an end to them in a third case, 



133 



