The Geotrupes: the Larva 



There is an entire absence of the hump be- 

 longing to the previous Dung-beetles; hke- 

 wise of any terminal trowel. The plasterer's 

 art of repairing crevices being unknown here, 

 there is no need for the cement-pot or the 

 spreading-utensil. The creature's skin is 

 smooth and white, clouded in the hinder half 

 by the dark contents of the intestines. 

 Sparse hairs, some fairly long, others very 

 short, stand up on the median and dorsal 

 region of the segments. They apparently 

 serve to help the grub move about its cell by 

 the mere wriggling of its hinder part. The 

 head is neither big nor small and is pale- 

 yellow in colour; the mandibles are large and 

 brown at the tip. 



But let us leave these details, which are of 

 no great interest, and say at once that the 

 creature's prominent characteristic is supplied 

 by its legs. The first two pairs are pretty 

 long, especially for an animal leading a seden- 

 tary life in a narrow cabin. They are norm- 

 ally constructed; and it must be their strength 

 that allows the grub to clamber about inside 

 its pudding, converted into a sheath by eating. 

 But the third pair presents a peculiarity of 

 which I know no example elsewhere. 



The limbs forming this pair are rudiment- 

 ary legs, crippled from birth, impotent, ar- 



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