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EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



THE BUEYING-BEETLES, OE SEXTONS. 



That there are many wonderful things to be 

 learnt by the careful and persevering study 

 of the habits, instincts, and metamorphoses of 

 insects, the untiring watchfulness of a Eeau- 

 mur, a Bonnet, or a Swammerdam have suffi- 

 ciently proved (if such proof were needed), 

 in the curious and interesting records they 

 have left concerning insect life. But these re- 

 cords were of necessity not entirely complete, 



Necropliorus nispator. 1, Female ; 2, Male. 



and the question is, whether, from the valu- 

 able data furnished by great naturalists, 

 we have not been induced, in some cases, to 

 amplify over picturesquely—fiUing up la- 

 cunce by what appeared to us undeniable 

 inferences, rather than with weU-ascertained 

 additional facts. The additional facts still 

 desirable are, perhaps, very hard to get at ; 

 but until we get them we must rest satisfied 



with an incomplete picture, and, above all, we 

 must not attempt to finish it from imaginary 

 references, however plausible. 



These remarks have reference more im- 

 mediately to the habits and instincts of a 

 group of our native Coleopfera, popularly 

 known as the burying-beetles, as we find those 

 insects described in the most modern ento- 

 mological works, both popular and scientific. 

 Among the earliest of the writers who describe 

 the peculiar habits of the burying-beetles 

 with great minuteness, was M. Gleditsch, in 

 his "Eecreations of Natural History," pub- 

 lished at Halle, in 1765. This account has 

 been recently quoted by Messrs. Kirby and 

 Spence, in one of the best and most trust- 

 worthy entomological works in the language, 

 and also by Mr. Westwood, in his " Modern 

 Classification of Insects." It is as follows :— 

 " M. Gleditsch had often remarked that dead 

 moles, when laid upon the ground, especially 

 if upon loose earth, were almost sure to dis- 

 appear in the course of two or three days, 

 often in twelve hours. To ascertain the 

 cause, he placed a dead mole upon one of the 

 beds of his garden. It had vanished by the 

 third morning : and on digging where it had 

 been laid, he found it buried to the depth of 

 three inches, and under it four beetles, which 

 seemed to have been the agents in this singu- 

 lar inhumation. Not perceiving anything 

 particular in the mole, he buried it again, 

 and on examining it at the end of six days, 

 he found it swarming with maggots, appa- 

 rently the issue of the beetles, which M. 

 Gleditsch now naturally concluded had 

 buried the carcase for the food of their 

 future young." This passage has been re- 

 peated by one entomological writer after 

 another without further investigation. It is 

 true that M. Gleditsch further states, that in 

 order to convince himself of the truth of his 



