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Updated: June 27, 2025
Because the cetonia lives on roses; and of the holy scarabæus Herodotus tells us that he dies of the odour of roses. As soon as the roses begin to bloom the scarabæus vanishes." This interested the girls, and we continued the subject.
Free to shift in one direction or the other, within narrow limits, its point is most probably seeking for the little mass of nerve-tissue which must be pricked, or at least sprinkled with poison, to obtain overwhelming paralysis. I will not close this report of the duel without relating a few further facts, of minor importance. The Two-banded Scolia is a fierce persecutor of the Cetonia.
It goes without saying that under the bell-glass the laying does not take place: the mother is too cautious to abandon her egg to the perils of the open air. Why then, recognizing the absence of her underground burrow, does the Scolia uselessly pursue the Cetonia with the frantic ardour of the Philanthus flinging herself upon the Bee?
The Garden Scolia attacks Oryctes nasicornis; the Two-banded Scolia the Cetonia; the Interrupted Scolia the Anoxia. All three operate below ground, under the most unfavourable conditions; and all three have for their victim a larva of one of the Scarabaeidae, which, thanks to the exceptional arrangement of its nerve-centres, lends itself, alone of all larvae, to the Wasp's successful enterprises.
Nevertheless, let us put the precursor of the Scoliae to the test. What did she do? Being capable of everything, she did a bit of everything. Among its descendants were innovators who developed a taste for tunnelling in sand and vegetable mould. There they encountered the larvae of the Cetonia, the Oryctes, the Anoxia, succulent morsels on which to rear their families.
It thrusts its neck into the belly of its prey; and for a couple of days all seems to go well. Then, lo and behold, the Cetonia turns putrid and the Scolia dies, poisoned by the ptomaines of the decomposing game! As before, I see it turn brown and die on the spot, still half inside the toxic corpse. The fatal issue of my experiment is easily explained. The Cetonia-larva is alive in every sense.
Had she to operate according to individual structure, she would need an anatomical dictionary; and instinct is essentially unfamiliar with generalities: its knowledge is always confined to limited points. The Cerceres know their Weevils and their Buprestis-beetles absolutely; the Sphex their Grasshoppers, their Crickets and their Locusts; the Scoliae their Cetonia- and Oryctes-grubs.
It becomes black on the dorsal surface of the Stercoraceous Geotrupes and the Mimic Geotrupes; and, with a quick change, it turns into amethyst under the belly of the first and into copper pyrites under the belly of the second. It covers the back of Cetonia floricola with golden bronze and the under surface with metallic purple.
Of these two conditions the Scoliae fulfilled one, with their regular quarry, the tender Cetonia-, Oryctes-or Anoxia-larva, according to the Scolia's species. Did they fulfil the second? I was convinced beforehand that they did.
"It would not hurt you to be of the same creed," said Countess Diodora. "For instance, to believe that the rose was created by God and the cetonia by the Devil," I replied, smilingly. "And why those?" she asked. "My niece has complained to me that you crush these beautiful little beetles to death. In what have they offended you?" "Offended me? Do you hold me capable of such petty malice?
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