The Old Weevils 
surrounding parts, carried by the rain-water, 
which warped their joints in crossing such 
obstacles as twigs and stones. A suit of 
armour has kept the body unscathed, but the 
delicate articulations of the members have 
given way to some extent; and the muddy 
winding-sheet received the drowned Beetles 
as the ravages of the journey left them. 
These strangers, coming perhaps from 
afar, supply us with valuable information. 
They tell us that, if the shores of the gulf 
had the Mosquito as chief representative of 
the insect class, the woods had the Weevil. 
Apart from the snout-bearing family, the 
pages of my Apt rock show me scarcely any- 
thing else, especially in the order of the 
Beetles. Where are the other terrestrial 
groups, the Carabus,* the Dung-beetle,? the 
Capricorn,? whom the wash of the rains, 
indifferent as to its harvest, would have 
brought to the lake even as it did the 
10Or Ground-beetle. Cf. The Glow-worm and Other 
Beetles, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander 
Teixeira de Mattos: chap. xili—Translator’s Note. 
2Cf. The Sacred Beetle and Others, by J. Henri Fabre, 
translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: passim. 
Translator’s Note. 
3Cf. The Glow-worm and Other Beetles: chap. viii.— 
Translator’s Note. 
17 
