Its diameter decreases progressively from the final blind alley to the starting-point.

The larva entered the timber as slim as a tiny bit of straw; it is to-day as thick as my finger.

In its three years' wanderings it always dug its gallery according to the mould of its body.

Evidently, the road by which the larva entered and moved about cannot be the Capricorn's exit-way: his immoderate antennae, his long legs, his inflexible armour-plates would encounter an insuperable obstacle in the narrow, winding corridor, which would have to be cleared of its wormed wood and, moreover, greatly enlarged.

It would be less fatiguing to attack the untouched timber and dig straight ahead.
Is the insect capable of doing so?
We shall see.
I make some chambers of suitable size in oak logs chopped in two; and each of my artificial cells receives a newly transformed Cerambyx, such as my provisions of firewood supply, when split by the wedge, in October.