FAMILY LIFE 209 



deposited therein singly or in small groups. The dragon- 

 flies that provide such shelters produce egg-shells of the 

 elongate form usual among insects, while the shells of eggs 

 dropped into the water are rotund or shortly oval in shape. 

 Some of the dragon-flies that cut incisions descend beneath 

 the surface of the water in order to lay their eggs. It is 

 remarkable that this provision of shelter in plant-tissue 

 should be made, for the larvae when hatched are little beasts 

 of prey, catching and feeding on weaker denizens of the 

 water. In many dragon-flies the male continues his attend- 

 ance on his mate throughout her egg-laying activities, so 

 that both parents appear concerned in preparation for their 

 offsprings' future. 



In previous chapters reference has been made to the 

 laying of eggs by female insects of various orders within 

 or alongside some substance — plant- tissue, animal body, 

 refuse, or carrion — that will serve as food suitable for the 

 grubs after hatcliing. In many such activities the 

 prospective mother in her egg-laying is reacting to an 

 appropriate stimulation through her sense-organs of vision 

 or smell, and it is perhaps dangerous to assign any psychic 

 element to her behaviour. Yet her action tends definitely 

 towards the provision of food for her young. Quite a 

 number of insects, however, go beyond this indirect pro- 

 vision, and take trouble to collect food for their larvae before 

 laying their eggs. The most striking examples of this 

 practice are to be found among the Hymen optera ; the 

 hunting and nest-provisioning habits of the digging-wasps 

 have been mentioned in Chapter V (pp. 105-7), ^^^ some 

 features in the activities of wasps, bees, and ants will be 

 discussed in the next chapter on Social Life among Insects. 

 For the present the food-providing habits of a common 

 European dorbeetle {Geotrupes typhaeiis), as described in 

 one of the famous memoirs of J. H. Fabre (1907), may serve 

 as an example of behaviour which cannot but suggest 

 parental care. A male and female of G. typhaeiis pair in 

 the early spring and excavate a cylindrical tunnel running 

 vertically down from the surface of the ground to a depth 



