The Spotted Larinus 
afford the luxury of a perfect cocoon, have 
the knack of felting their hairs with a little 
silk. The Larinus-grub, that  poverty- 
stricken creature, having no spinning-mill, 
must have recourse to its intestine, its only 
stand-by. 
This stercoral method proves once more 
that necessity is the mother of invention. 
To build a luxurious palace with one’s ordure 
is a most meritorious device. Only an insect 
would be capable of it. For that matter, 
the Larinus has no monopoly of this archi- 
tectural style, which is not described in 
Vitruvius.t Many other larva, _better- 
furnished with building-materials—those of 
the Onites, the Onthophagi,! the Cetoniz,* 
for example—greatly excel it in the beauty 
of their excremental edifices. 
When completed, on the approach of the 
nymphosis, the abode of the Larinus is an 
oval cell measuring fifteen millimetres in 
1 Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (f. rst century B. c.) the Ro- 
man architect and engineer, author of De Architectura— 
Translator’s Note. 
1 For the Onitis and Onthophagus Dung-beetles, cf. The 
Sacred Beetles and Others: chapters xi. and xiv. to xviii. 
—Translator’s Note. 
2 Rose-chafers. Cf. More Hunting Wasps: chap. iv.— 
Translator’s Note. 
45 
