self. "Suppose it were _that_? Why not? But, no,
yes, it _is_ that; that's just what it is!"

Then, suddenly turning to Emile, who was rather surprised by this
soliloquy:

"My boy," I said, "you have had a magnificent find. It's a
pseudochrysalis of the Meloidae. It's a document of incalculable
value; you've struck a fresh vein in the extraordinary records of
these creatures. Let us look at it closely and at once."

The thing was taken from the box, dusted by blowing on it and
carefully examined. I really had before my eyes the pseudochrysalis of
some Meloid. Its shape was unfamiliar to me. No matter: I was an old
hand and could not mistake its source. Everything assured me that I
was on the track of an insect that rivalled the Sitares and the
Oil-beetles in the strangeness of its transformations; and, what was a
still more precious fact, its occurrence amid the burrows of the
Mantis-killer told me that its habits would be wholly different.

"It's very hot, my poor Emile; we are both of us pretty done. Never
mind: let's go back to our sand-hill and dig and have another search.
I must have the larva that comes before the pseudochrysalis; I must,
if possible, have the insect that comes out of it."

Success responded amply to our zeal. We found a goodly number of
pseudochrysalids. More often still, we unearthed larvae which were
busy eating the Mantes, the rations of the Tachytes. Are these really
the larvae that turn into the pseudochrysalids? It seems very
probable, but there is room for doubt. Rearing them at home will
dispel the mists of probability and replace them by the light of
certainty. But that is all: I have not a vestige of the perfect insect
to inform me of the nature of the parasite. The future, let us hope,
will fill this gap. Such was the result of the first trench opened in
the heap of sand. Later searches enriched my harvest a little, without
furnishing me with fresh data.

Let us now proceed to examine my double find. And first of all the
pseudochrysalis, which put me on the alert. It is a motionless, rigid
body, of a waxen yellow, smooth, shiny, curved like a fish-hook
towards the head, which is inflected. Under a very powerful
magnifying-glass the surface is seen to be strewn with very tiny
points which are slightly raised and shinier than the surface. There
are thirteen segments, including the head. The dorsal surface is
convex, the ventral surface flat. A blunt ridge divides the two
surfaces