The Sacred Beetle: the Larva 



which are visible when you hold the creature 

 to the light. Bent Into a broken arch or 

 hook, it is not unlike the grub of the Cock- 

 chafer, but has a much more ungainly figure, 

 for, on its back, at the sudden bend of the 

 hook, the third, fourth and fifth segments 

 of the abdomen swell into an enormous 

 hump, a tumour, a bag so prominent that the 

 skin seems on the point of bursting under 

 the pressure of the contents. This is the 

 animal's most striking feature : the fact that 

 it carries a knapsack. 



The head Is small, in proportion to the 

 grub's size, is slightly convex, bright-red 

 and studded with a few pale bristles. The 

 legs are fairly long and sturdy, ending in a 

 pointed tarsus. The grub does not use them 

 as a means of progression. When taken 

 from its shell and placed upon the table, it 

 struggles in clumsy contortions without 

 succeeding in shifting its position; and the 

 helpless creature betrays its anxiety by 

 repeated discharges of its mortar. 



Let us also mention the terminal trowel, 

 that last segment lopped into a slanting disk 

 and rimmed with a fleshy pad. In the centre 

 of this inclined plane is the open stercora- 

 ceous slit, which thus, by a very unusual 



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