y as
best it can, not knowing exactly what to do with them.

But wait for the pairing; and the extravagant becomes reasonable. The
couple take up their pose in the form of a T. The male, standing
perpendicularly, or nearly, represents the cross-piece and the female
the shaft of the letter, lying on its side. To steady his attitude,
which is so contrary to the usual position in pairing, the male flings
out his long grappling-hooks, two sheet-anchors which grip the
female's shoulders, the fore-edge of her corselet, or even her head.

At this moment, the only moment that counts in the adult insect's
life, it is a good thing indeed to possess long arms, long hands, like
_Clythra longimana_ and _C. longipes_, as the scientific nomenclature
calls them. Although their names are silent on the subject, the
Taxicorn Clythra and the Six-spotted Clythra (_C. sexmaculata_, FAB.)
and many others also have recourse to the same means of equilibrium:
their fore-legs are utterly exaggerated.

Is the difficulty of pairing in a transversal position the explanation
of the long grappling-irons thrown out to a distance? We will not be
too certain, for here is the Four-spotted Clythra, who would flatly
contradict us. The male has fore-legs of modest dimensions, in
conformity with the usual rules; he places himself crosswise like the
others and nevertheless achieves his ends without hindrance. He finds
it enough to modify slightly the gymnastics of his embrace. The same
may be said of the different Cryptocephali, who all have stumpy limbs.
Wherever we look, we find special resources, known to some and unknown
to others.

CHAPTER XIX
THE CLYTHRAE: THE EGG

Let us leave the long-armed and short-armed to pursue their amorous
contests as they please and come to the egg, the main object of my
insect-rearing. The Taxicorn Clythra is the first in the field; I see
her at working during the last days of May. A most singular and
disconcerting batch of eggs is hers! Is it really a group of eggs? I
hesitate until I surprise the mother using her hind-legs to finish
extracting the strange germ which issues slowly and perhaps
laboriously from her oviduct.

It is indeed the Taxicorn Clythra's batch. Assembled in bundles of one
to three dozen and each fastened by a slender transparent thread
slightly longer than itself, the eggs form a sort of inverted umbel,
which dangles sometimes from the trelliswork of the cover, sometimes
from the leaves o