21 



packing them in. After a small amount of food has been put into 

 the cavity by the female, Fabre says, speaking of bis G. stprrorariitx, 

 that the male, at the time of the laying of the egg, retires discreetly 

 aside, the female deposits the egg and closes the cavity containing 

 it, and the male then takes up the work of completing the sausage. 

 I have been unable to confirm this and various other details men- 

 tioned by Fabre, in the case of any of the species I have had under 

 observation. In every case I have watched, the female has always 

 completed the work of sausage making herself. I have indeed seen 

 a female G. spinifier carry out the whole of the work of shaft- 

 sinking, excavating, and making two sausages by herself, while the 

 male was hiding in an adjacent " funk-hole." Fabre contradicts 

 the statement of the German naturalist, Frisch, quoted by Mulsant, 

 that the egg of (j. sti'irorariu^ is laid in an earthen cell. That of 

 G. s/iinif/rr is certainly placed in a cavity surrounded by clay, the 

 whole lying within some la3'-ers of food material as previously 

 described by Dr. Chapman in his paper referred to above. A 

 photograph of one of these cells is seen in Fig. 1, Plate I. As to 

 the way in which the operation is carried out I have unfortunately 

 never been able to observe, not being present at the critical time to 

 see it, but with more leisure at command the whole operation could 

 be easily inspected in one of the cages. There is a small amount of 

 clay surrounding the cavity containing the egg of (r. fit>'ieorariiis as 

 noted by Sano, These points can readily be seen in sausages dug 

 up in the field, at the right time of year. 



At times the male appears to get tired or perhaps lazy and does 

 not return with a supply of material. The female then calls to him, 

 using the stridulating apparatus situated on the base of the abdomen 

 and the posterior coxie. It is quite audible to an observer. If he 

 still lags she comes up after him and gives him a good dressing 

 down, clawing him vigorously, and he then once more resumes his 

 task. I found that G. spiniifer and G. imitator took about 24 hours 

 to excavate a food chamber and about 48 hours to till it. After a 

 short rest they would commence another chamber higher up the 

 shaft, succeeded by a third, fourth, or even a fifth. In the field the 

 food chambers radiate at the same level from the bottom of the 

 shaft eight or ten inches below the surface. It is generally safest 

 to remove the beetles when three or four cells are completed, as they 

 often start a fresh shaft then which in the confined space may 

 interfere with the work already completed. 



With regard to G. ti/iihoeim, as Fabre has noted, the egg is not 

 laid in the sausage but at a distance of about half an inch from the 

 end of it, in the sand. The larva has to burrow its way to its first 

 meal. This larva has not got the stridnlatory apparatus situated on 

 the second and third legs that is found in the larviB of the other 

 epecies. Probably the continental coleopterists are well advised in 

 placing this insect in a separate genus '/c, Minotaitnis. 



There are many details to be recorded about the methods of work, 



