The Sacred Beetle and Others 



another and yet another, in swift succession. 

 Useless pains ! In vain the plasterer tries 

 again, in vain it struggles, gathering the 

 trickling material with its legs and mandibles : 

 the hole refuses to close. The mortar is still 

 too fluid. 



Poor, desperate thing, why don't you copy 

 your young sister? Do what the little larva 

 did just now: build an awning with particles 

 taken from the wall of your house; and your 

 liquid putty will do well on that spongy 

 scaffolding! The large grub, trusting to its 

 trowel, does not think of that method. It 

 exhausts itself, without any appreciable re- 

 sult, in trying to effect repairs which the little 

 grub managed most ingeniously. What the 

 baby knew how to do the big larva no longer 

 knows. 



Insect industry has instances like this of 

 professional methods employed at certain 

 periods and then abandoned and utterly for- 

 gotten. A few days more or less make 

 changes in the creature's talents. The tiny 

 grub, devoid of cement, has bricks to fall 

 back upon; the big larva, rich in putty, scorns 

 to build, or rather no longer knows how, 

 though it is even better endowed than the 

 youngster with the necessary tools. The 

 strong one no longer remembers what as a 



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