The Sacred Beetle and Others 



rested in their development. They give one 

 the impression of lifeless stumps. Their 

 length is hardly a third of that of the others. 

 More remarkable still, instead of pointing 

 downwards lil<:e the normal legs, they shrivel 

 upwards, turning towards the back, and 

 remain indefinitely in that queer attitude, 

 twisted and stiff. / I cannot succeed in seeing 

 the animal make the slightest use of them. 

 Nevertheless they show the same joints as the 

 others; but this is all on a greatly reduced 

 scale, pale and inert. In short, a couple of 

 words will distinguish the Geotrupes' larva 

 without any possibility of confusion : hind-legs 

 atrophied. 



This feature is so plain, so striking, so 

 extraordinary that the least observant among 

 us cannot mistake it. A grub crippled by 

 nature and so evidently crippled enforces it- 

 self on our attention. What do the books 

 say about it? Nothing, so far as I know. 

 The few which I have with me are silent on 

 this point. Mulsant, it is true, described the 

 larva of the Stercoraceous Geotrupes; but he 

 makes no mention of its exceptional structure. 

 In his anxiety to describe the minutest details 

 of the organism, has he lost sight of this mon- 

 strosity? Labrum, palpi, antennae, the num- 

 ber of joints, the hairs: all this is set down 



324 



