The Sacred Beetle: the Larva 



it carries a voluminous lateral pocket 

 distended by the food. This is a subsidiary 

 stomach in which the supplies are stored 

 so as to yield their nutritive principles more 

 thoroughly. The chylilic ventricle is much 

 too long to lie straight and twists round, in 

 front of its appendix, in the form of a large 

 loop occupying the dorsal surface. It is to 

 contain this loop and the side-pocket that the 

 back swells into a hump. The grub's knap- 

 sack is, therefore, a second paunch, an 

 annexe, as it were, of the stomach, which Is 

 by itself incapable of holding the voluminous 

 digestive apparatus. Four very fine, very 

 long tubular glands, very much entangled, 

 four Malpighian vessels mark the limits of 

 the chylific ventricle. 



Next comes the intestine, which is narrow 

 and cylindrical and rises In front. The 

 intestine is followed by the rectum, which 

 pushes backwards. This last, which Is 

 exceptionally large and furnished with stout 

 walls, is wrinkled across, bloated and 

 distended with its contents. There you have 

 the roomy warehouse In which the digestive 

 refuse accumulates; there you have the 

 mighty ejaculator, ever ready to provide 

 cement. 



137 



