The Bull Onthophagus: the Larva 



hump. The stercoral architect is about to 

 construct a masterpiece of elegance out of its 

 own ordure, held in reserve in that re- 

 ceptacle. 



I follow its movements with the magnify- 

 ing-glass. It curves itself into a loop, closes 

 the circuit of the digestive apparatus, brings 

 its two ends into contact and, with the tip 

 of its mandibles, seizes a pellet of dung 

 evacuated at that moment. This pellet is 

 extracted very neatly and moulded into a 

 brick which is measured most carefully. A 

 slight bend of the creature's neck sets the 

 brick in place. Others follow, laid in the 

 most scrupulously regular courses one above 

 the other. Giving a tap here and there with 

 its palpi, the grub makes sure of the steadi- 

 ness of the parts, their accurate binding, 

 their orderly arrangement. It turns round 

 in the centre of the work "as the edifice rises, 

 even as a mason does when building a turret. 



Sometimes the brick that has been laid be- 

 comes loose, because the cement has given 

 way. The grub takes it up again with its 

 mandibles, but, before replacing it, coats it 

 with an adhesive moisture. It holds it to its 

 anus, whence a gummy consolidating-extract 

 trickles immediately and almost impercepti- 

 bly. The hump supplies the materials; the 



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