CAREFUL MOTHERS 



Among the Dung-beetles of Brazil there are magnificent species, as 

 large as a five-shilling piece, gleaming red or blue, or even with a 

 red, metallic lustre. The head of the Sword-beetle (Phanaeus ensifer) 

 is adorned with a curving horn. These beetles are relatives of the 

 Scarabaei, which were revered by the ancient Egyptians, and of 

 which images in stone or pottery were buried with the dead. The 

 Brazilian Dung-beetles excavate an underground gallery, and into 

 this they carry dung with their outstretched forelegs, which are 

 shovel-shaped, and toothed at the edge. This dung they knead 

 into a ball, and at one point they pull the ball out a little, and in 

 this part they imbed the egg, so that the air may have better access 

 to it. In order to prevent the ball from drying, it is enclosed in a 

 thick shell of clay, the whole being some two inches in diameter. 

 But over the egg, in order that the air may reach it, the clay covering 

 is left porous. Lastly, the way to the outer world is shown by morsels 

 of dung left lying at regular intervals, so that the beetle which 

 results from the larva — which feeds on the ball of dung until pupa- 

 tion — can at once find its way to the outer world, much as Hansel 

 and Gretel found their way home. 



Many of these Dung-beetles still go on working when the larvae 

 have already emerged and are eating, while certain Rhinoceros- 

 beetles even survive until the pupation of their offspring. It is the 

 same with the Scarabaeidae. The female Bark-bug (Phloeacorticaria), 

 of which I have already spoken (Plate 29, 3), carries her whole 

 family under her body, and according to Brehm it is even possible 

 that the mother allows a portion of the sap which she sucks from 

 her food-plant to trickle over the flat underside of her body, in order 

 to nourish her brood. 



In the case of the Green Cockroach which is common in Brazil 

 it has been observed that the eggs develop in a brood-pouch on the 

 mother's body, which the young leave only at a later stage. Among 

 the Water-bugs there is actually a species in which the male is 

 obliged to take charge of the brood, for the female simply glues the 

 whole packet of eggs on his back. Brazil, like India, boasts of enor- 

 mous aquatic bugs, which at night fly, with a terrific smack, against 

 lamps and lanterns, but by day they rove about in the water, 

 killing frogs or fishes with their venomous bite, and eating them. 



Among the Sugar-beetles we find a real family life. These are 

 long, flat, shining black beetles with ridged wing-covers, the largest 

 of which grows to a length of nearly three inches. I found the 

 Sugar-beetles in a rotten tree-trunk in Ceylon, and I met with 



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