I must not forget to mention that the cage is provided with a drinking-trough, that is to say, a saucer full of water. The Gold [[298]]Beetles often come and drink at it after their meals. Parched after their heating diet and, moreover, daubed all over with slime after cutting up a Snail, they quench their thirst at the saucer, rinse their mouths and bathe their tarsi, which are shod in sticky boots heavy with sand. After this ablution, they make for their shelter under the bit of board and quietly enjoy a long siesta. [[299]]
[1] Cf. The Life of the Caterpillar: chaps. i. to vi.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[2] Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux (1627–1704),—author of many famous religious, historical and political works.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[3] The Pine Processionary is the caterpillar of the Moth known as the Pine Bombyx.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[4] The larva of the Tiger-moth (Celonia caja) Cf. The Life of the Caterpillar: chaps. vi. and vii.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
CHAPTER XIV
THE GOLD BEETLES: THEIR NUPTIAL HABITS
It is admitted that, as an ardent destroyer of caterpillars and Slugs, the Gold Beetle has pre-eminently earned his title of “Gardener”: he is the watchful keeper of our kitchen-gardens and our flower-borders. If my enquiries add nothing to his established reputation in this respect, they will at least, in what follows, display the insect in an as yet unsuspected light. The ferocious eater, the ogre devouring any prey not beyond his powers, is eaten in his turn. And by whom? By his own kin and many others.