Even so do the Copres, the Gymnopleuri,[8] the Onites, the Onthophagi and many others behave; even so must the jewel of the pampas, the Splendid Phanaeus set to work. With as much certainty as though I had him before my eyes at the moment when he divests himself of his nymphal swaddling-bands, I see him a dull red, rusty or crimson, excepting on the wing-covers and the abdomen, which are at first colourless and presently turn the same colour as the rest. In the Sacred Beetle this initial red is followed by black; the Phanaeus replaces it by the brilliance of copper and the reflections of the emerald. Ebony, metal, the gem: have they the same origin here then? Evidently. [Footnote 8: Cf. _The Sacred Beetle and Others_: chap. viii.--_Translator's Note_.] The metallic lustre does not call for a change of nature; a mere nothing is enough to produce it. Silver, when very finely subdivided by the methods whereof chemistry knows the secret, becomes a dust as poor to look at as soot. When pressed between two hard bodies, this dirty powder, which might be dried mud, at once acquires the metallic sheen and again becomes the silver which we know. A mere molecular contact has wrought the miracle. Dissolved in water, the murexide derived from uric acid is a magnificent crimson. Solidified by crystallization, it rivals in splendour the gold-green of the Cantharides. The widely-used fuschine affords a well-known example of like properties. Everything, then, appears to show that the same substance, derived from urinary excretions, yields, according to the mode in which its ultimate particles are grouped, the metallic red of the Phanaeus, as well as the white, the dull red and the black of the Sacred Beetle. 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. According to the insect, according to the part of the body, it remains a dingy compound or sparkles with reflections even more vivid and varied than those possessed by the metals.