The influence of environment, so well-inspired in endowing the grub with ambulatory pads, becomes a mockery when it leaves it these ridiculous stumps.

Can the structure, perchance, be obeying other rules than those of environment?
Though the useless legs, the germs of the future limbs, persist, there is no sign in the grub of the eyes wherewith the Cerambyx will be richly gifted.

The larva has not the least trace of organs of vision.
What would it do with sight in the murky thickness of a tree-trunk?
Hearing is likewise absent.

In the never-troubled silence of the oak's inmost heart, the sense of hearing would be a non-sense.

Where sounds are lacking, of what use is the faculty of discerning them?
Should there be any doubts, I will reply to them with the following experiment.