A labour at once of nutrition and of road-making, the path is devoured while constructed; it is blocked behind as it makes way ahead.

That, however, is how all the borers who look to wood for victuals and lodging set about their business.
For the harsh work of its two gouges, or curved chisels, the larva of the Capricorn concentrates its muscular strength in the front of its body, which swells into a pestle-head.

The Buprestis-grubs, those other industrious carpenters, adopt a similar form; they even exaggerate their pestle.

The part that toils and carves hard wood requires a robust structure; the rest of the body, which has but to follow after, continues slim.

The essential thing is that the implement of the jaws should possess a solid support and a powerful motor.