The Sacred Beetle and Others 



could be recognized, not before; for other- 

 wise we should have that as yet unsuspected 

 connecting-link, the grub. The twenty-eight 

 days, therefore, during which, as Horapollo 

 tells us, the offspring of the insect quickens, 

 represent the duration of the nymphal phase. 

 This duration has been the object of special 

 attention In my studies. It varies but never 

 to any great extent. From my notes I find 

 thirty-three days to be the longest period 

 and twenty-one the shortest. The average, 

 supplied by some twenty observations, is 

 twenty-eight days. This very number 

 twenty-eight, this number of days contained 

 in four weeks, actually appears oftener 

 than the others. Horapollo spoke truly: 

 the real insect takes life in the space of a 

 lunar month. 



The four weeks past, behold the Sacred 

 Beetle in his final shape: the shape, yes, but 

 not the colouring, which is very strange 

 when the nymph casts its skin. The head, 

 legs and thorax are dark-red, except the 

 denticulations of the forehead and fore- 

 arms, which are smoky-brown. The 

 abdomen is an opaque white; the wing- 

 cases are semitransparent white, very faintly 

 tinged with yellow. This imposing raiment, 

 blending the scarlet of the cardinal's cassock 



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