The Life of the Weevil 
employed is strikingly ingenious. While on 
this subject, let us recall the wonderful 
devices of the Dung-Beetles. 
The Sacred Beetle models her grub’s loaf 
in the form of a pear; the Spanish Copris ? 
shapes it like an egg. It is compact, homo- 
geneous and as air-tight as stucco-work. To 
breathe in these lodgings would unquestion- 
ably be a very difficult thing; but the danger 
is provided against. Look at the small end 
of the pear and the top of the ovoid. After 
ever so little reflection, you will be seized 
with surprise and admiration. 
There—and there only—you will see, not 
the air-tight paste of the rest of the work, 
but a stringy plug, a disk of coarse velvet 
bristling with tiny fibres, a round piece of 
loosely-made felt through which the gaseous 
exchanges can be effected. AQ filter takes the 
place of the solid material. The mere 
appearance is enough to tell us the function 
of this part. If doubts occurred to our 
minds, here is something to dispel them: I 
cover the fibrous expanse with several coats 
of varnish; I deprive the filter of its porous- 
1 Cf. The Sacred Beetle and Others: chaps. ix. and 
x.—Translator’s Note. 
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