ect to disgust its
enemies? This again is possible: who would venture to set tooth to
such a heap of filth? Or can it be simply a caprice of fashion, an
outlandish fancy? I will not say no. We have had the crinoline, that
senseless bulwark of steel hoops; we still have the extravagant
stove-pipe hat, which tries to mould our heads in its stiff sheath.
Let us be indulgent to the evacuator nor disparage his eccentric
wardrobe. We have eccentricities of our own.

To feel our way a little in this delicate question, we will question
the near kinsmen of the Lily-beetle. In my acre or two of pebbles I
have planted a bed of asparagus. The crop, from the culinary point of
view, will never repay me for my trouble: I am rewarded in another
fashion. On the scanty shoots which I allow to display themselves
freely in plumes of delicate green, two Crioceres abound in the
spring: the field species (_C. campestris_, LIN.) and the
twelve-spotted species (_C. duodecimpunctata_, LIN.). A splendid
windfall, far better than any bundle of asparagus.

The first has a tricolor costume which is not without merit. Blue
wing-cases, braided with white on the outer edge and each adorned with
three white dots; a red corselet, with a blue disk in the centre. Its
eggs are olive-green and cylindrical and, instead of lying flat,
grouped in short lines, after the manner of the lily-dweller's, occur
singly and stand on end on the leaves of the asparagus-plant, on the
twigs, on the flower-buds, more or less everywhere, without any fixed
order.

Though living in the open air on the leaves of its plant and thus
exposed to all the various perils that may threaten the Lily-grub, the
larva of the Field Crioceris knows nothing whatever of the art of
sheltering itself beneath a layer of ordure. It goes through life
naked and always perfectly clean.

It is of a bright greenish yellow, fairly fat behind and thinner in
front. Its principal organ of locomotion is the end of the intestine,
which protrudes, curves like a flexible finger, clasps the twig and
supports the creature while pushing it forward. The true legs, which
are short and placed too far in front with regard to the length of the
body, would find it very difficult by themselves to drag the heavy
mass that comes after. Their assistant, the anal finger, is remarkably
strong. With no support, the larva turns over, head downwards, and
remains suspended when shifting from one sprig to another. This
Jack-