ts, that the tools do not decide
the trade. And now, yes, the Crioceres come and add their testimony. I
question three of them, all common, too common, in my paddock. At the
proper season, I have them before my eyes, without searching for them,
whenever I want to ask them for information.

[Footnote 1: A genus of Weevils, the essays upon whom will appear in a
later volume to be entitled _The Life of Weevil_.--_Translator's
Note_.]

The first is the Crioceris of the Lily, or Lily-beetle. Since Latin
words offend our modesty let us just once mention her scientific name,
_Crioceris merdigera_, LIN., without translating it, or, above all,
repeating it. Decency forbids. I have never been able to understand
why natural history need inflict upon a lovely flower or an engaging
animal an odious name.

As a matter of fact, our Crioceris, so ill-treated by the
nomenclators, is a sumptuous creature. She is nicely shaped, neither
too large nor too small, and a beautiful coral red, with jet-black
head and legs. Everybody knows her who in the spring has ever glanced
at the lily, when its stem is beginning to show in the centre of the
rosette of leaves. A Beetle, of less than the average size and
coloured sealing-wax red, is perched up on the plant. Your hand goes
out to seize her. Forthwith, paralysed with fright, she drops to the
ground.

Let us wait a few days and return to the lily, which is gradually
growing taller and beginning to show its buds, gathered together in a
bundle. The red insect is still there. Further, the leaves, which are
seriously bitten into, are reduced to tatters and soiled with little
heaps of greenish ordure. It looks as if some witchcraft had mashed up
the leaves and then splashed the mess all over the place.

Well, this filth moves, travels slowly along. Let us overcome our
repugnance and poke the heaps with a straw. We uncover, indeed we
unclothe an ugly, pot-bellied, pale-orange larva. It is the grub of
the Crioceris.

The origin of the garment of which we have just stripped it would be
unmentionable, save in the world of the insect, that manufacturer
devoid of shame. This doublet is, in fact, obtained from the
creature's excretions. Instead of evacuating downwards, on the
superannuated principle, the Crioceris' larva evacuates upwards and
receives upon its back the waste products of the intestine, materials
which move from back to front as each fresh pat is dabbed upon the
others. Reaumur has co