The Sacred Beetle and Others 



layer, the grub's excreta are accumulated, 

 held in reserve for the final work. In the 

 centre of this mass, a hollow is dug, care- 

 fully polished inside. With the excavated 

 rubbish, the grub builds not just a canopy, 

 like that with which the winter alcove was 

 protected, but a solid lid, with a rough outer 

 surface, in appearance not unlike the work of 

 the Cetonias when they wrap themselves in 

 a shell of mould. This lid, with what is left 

 of the pudding, forms a habitation which 

 would remind us pretty closely of the Cock- 

 chafer's dwellin-g, were it not truncated in the 

 upper part, which moreover is most often 

 topped by a few remnants from the destroyed 

 cylinder. 



The grub is now shut in for the transform- 

 ation, motionless, with its body emptied of 

 all dross. In a few days a blister appears 

 on the dorsal surface of the last abdominal 

 segments. This swells, spreads and gradu- 

 ally extends as far as the thorax. It is 

 the work of excoriation beginning. Dis- 

 tended by a colourless liquid, the blister 

 gives an uncertain glimpse of a sort of milky 

 cloud, the first blurred outline of the new 

 organism. 



The thorax splits in front, the cast skin 

 is slowly pushed backwards and at last we 



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