The Sacred Beetle and Others 



of August, the probability of an equivalent 

 of that shower is almost nil. How then is 

 the fatal drying-up of the victuals avoided? 

 To begin with, there are, so it seems to me, 

 certain gifts bestowed on these little ones so 

 inadequately protected by their mother's in- 

 dustry against the enemy, drought. I have 

 seen Onthophagus- and Oniticellus-larvae 

 recover their appetite, their plumpness and 

 their vigour under the wet cotton, after a 

 three weeks' fast that had reduced them to 

 a wrinkled pilule. This faculty of endurance 

 has its uses : it enables the possessor to await, 

 in a state of lethargy akin to death, the few, 

 very uncertain drops of rain that will put an 

 end to the famine. It comes to the grub's 

 rescue, but it is not sufficient: the prosperity 

 of a race cannot be based upon privation. 



There is something more, therefore; and 

 this is furnished by the mother's instinct. 

 Whereas the manufacturers of pears and 

 ovoids always dig their burrow at an open 

 spot, with no other protection than the mound 

 of earth flung up, the makers of little 

 thimbles bore their well directly under the 

 material exploited and go by preference to 

 the voluminous droppings of the Horse and 

 the Mule. Under this thick mattress, the 



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