204 
THE CICINDELA EXAMINED. 
depth. It invests with surpassing loveliness things which are absol¬ 
utely hidden, and which death alone can unveil. Sometimes, as if 
to contradict and confound our ideas, it clothes in ravishing forms 
the organs which, from our point of view, accomplish the vilest 
functions. I am thinking of the exquisite beauty and delicate tender¬ 
ness of that coral-tree which incessantly pours out the chyle of our 
intestines. 
To return to the insects: beauty abounds in them both externally 
and internally. One need not search far in order to discover it. Take an 
insect, not very rare, which I constantly meet with on the sandy soil 
of Fontainebleau, in localities well open to the sun. Take—but not 
without precaution, for it is well armed—the brilliant cicindela. Even 
to the naked eye it is an agreeable object; but under the microscope it 
appears to be perhaps the richest and the most varied which art could 
study. These are truly surprising creatures ! Each individual differs; 
all are enamelled, and decorated to an excess, without resembling one 
another. In each, if taken and separately studied, new discoveries may 
be made. 
It is the ardent and murderous hunter of other insects, and endowed 
with formidable weapons,—having for its two anterior mandibles a 
couple of sickles which close in upon one another, and transfix deeply, 
on both sides, their unfortunate victim. Its rich and living aliment 
apparently communicates to the cicindela its glowing colours. Its 
entire body is embellished with them. On the wings, a changeful 
besprinkling of peacock’s eyes. On the fore parts, numerous meanders, 
diversely and softly shaded, are trailed over a dark ground. Abdo¬ 
men and legs are glazed with such rich hues that no enamel can sustain 
a comparison with them; the eye can scarcely endure their vivacity. 
The singular thing is, that beside these enamels you find the dead tones 
of flowers and the butterfly’s wing. To all these various elements add 
some singularities, which you would suppose to be the work of human 
art, in the Oriental styles, Persian and Turkish, or as in the Indian 
shawl, where the colours, slightly subdued, have found an admirable 
basis * time having gradually lent a grave tone to their sweet harmony. 
