every one's power, it appears. It is
the course adopted, for instance, by the Sphex-wasps and the
Anthophora-bees, who, when the whole of the food is consumed, expel at
one shot the residues amassed in the intestines since the commencement
of the repast.

Others, the Osmiae in particular, accept a compromise and begin to
relieve the digestive tract when a suitable space has been made in
the cell through the gradual disappearance of the victuals. Others
again--more hurried these--find means of obeying the common law pretty
early by engaging in stercoral manufactures. By a stroke of genius, they
make the unpleasant obstruction into building-bricks. We already know
the art of the Lily-beetle (Crioceris merdigera. Fabre's essay on this
insect has not yet been translated into English; but readers interested
in the matter will find a full description in "An Introduction to
Entomology," by William Kirby, Rector of Barham, and William Spence:
letter 21.--Translator's Note.), who, with her soft excrement, makes
herself a coat wherein to keep cool in spite of the sun. It is a very
crude and revolting art, disgusting to the eye. The Diadem Anthidium
belongs to another school. With her droppings she fashions masterpieces
of marquetry and mosaic, which wholly conceal their base origin from the
onlooker. Let us watch her labours through the windows of my tubes.

When the portion of food is nearly half consumed, there begins and goes
on to the end a frequent defecation of yellowish droppings, each hardly
the size of a pin's head. As these are ejected, the grub pushes them
back to the circumference of the cell with a movement of its hinder-part
and keeps them there by means of a few threads of silk. The work of
the spinnerets, therefore, which is deferred in the others until the
provisions are finished, starts earlier here and alternates with the
feeding. In this way, the excretions are kept at a distance, away from
the honey and without any danger of getting mixed with it. They end by
becoming so numerous as to form an almost continuous screen around the
larva. This excremental awning, made half of silk and half of droppings,
is the rough draft of the cocoon, or rather a sort of scaffolding on
which the stones are deposited until they are definitely placed in
position. Pending the piecing together of the mosaic, the scaffolding
keeps the victuals free from all contamination.

To get rid of what cannot be flung outside, by hanging it