The Bear Larinus 
If the head is a good-sized one, it is not 
unusual to find a score or more of table- 
companions, plump, red-headed grubs, with 
fat, glossy backs. There is plenty of room 
for all. 
For the rest, they are of a very stay-at- 
home habit. Far from straying at random 
over the abundant food-supply, in which they 
might well sample the best and pick their 
mouthfuls, they remain encamped within the 
narrow area of the place where they were 
hatched. Moreover, despite their corpu- 
lence, they are extremely fruga?, to such a 
point that, excepting the inhabited patches, 
the floral head retains its full vigour and 
ripens its seeds as usual. 
In this blazing summer weather, three or 
four days are enough for the hatching. If 
the young grub is at some distance from the 
seeds, it reaches them by slipping along the 
hairs, a few of which it gathers on its way. 
If it is born in contact with a seed, it remains 
in its native cup, for the desired point is 
attained. 
Its food consists, in fact, of the few 
surrounding seeds, five or six, hardly more; 
and even so the greater number are only in 
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