nnae. The
tarsus folds back; and the antennae are held as in a vice. The suitor
pulls; and the callous one is forced to raise her head. In this
posture the male reminds one of a horseman proudly sitting his steed
and holding the reins in both hands. Thus mastering his mount, he is
sometimes motionless and sometimes frenzied in his demonstrations.
Then, with his long abdomen, he lashes the female's hinder-parts,
first on one side, then on the other; the front part he flogs, hammers
and pounds with blows of his antennae, head and feet. The object of
his desires will be unfeeling indeed if she refuse to surrender to so
passionate a declaration.

Nevertheless she still requires entreating. The impassioned lover
resumes his ecstatic immobility, with his quivering arms outstretched
like the limbs of a cross. At brief intervals the amorous outbursts,
with blows conscientiously distributed, recur in alternation with
periods of repose, during which the male holds his fore-legs
crosswise, or else masters the female by the bridle of her antennae.
At last the flagellated beauty allows herself to be touched by the
charm attendant on his thumps. She yields. Coupling takes place and
lasts for twenty hours. The heroic part of the male's performance is
over. Dragged backwards behind the female, the poor fellow strives to
uncouple himself. His mate carts him about from leaf to leaf, wherever
she pleases, so that she may choose the bit of green stuff to her
taste. Sometimes he also takes a gallant resolve and, like the female,
begins to browse. You lucky creatures, who, so as not to lose a moment
of your four or five weeks' existence, yoke together the cravings of
love and hunger! Your motto is, "A short life and a merry one."

The Cerocoma, who is a golden green like the Cantharides, seems to
have partly adopted the amorous rites of her rival in dress. The male,
always the elegant sex in the insect tribe, wears special ornaments.
The horns or antennae, magnificently complicated, form as it were two
tufts of a thick head of hair. It is to this that the name Cerocoma
refers: the creature crested with its horns. When a bright sun shines
into the breeding-cage, it is not long before the insects form couples
on the bunch of everlastings. Hoisted on the female, whom he embraces
and holds with his two pairs of hind-legs, the male sways his head and
corselet up and down, all in a piece. This oscillatory movement has
not the fiery precipitation