1 THE SACRED BEETLE 13 



with that great and noble virtue called Patience, 

 remain near this forsaken ball. After a while the 

 Ateuchus will return, and not alone ; it will be 

 followed by two, three, or four companions who, 

 alighting at the appointed spot, will join in trying 

 to lift up the load. The Ateuchus has been to 

 seek reinforcements, and this explains why several 

 beetles uniting to transport a single ball is such a 

 common sight in dry fields." I also read in Illiger's 

 Entomological Magazine : " A Gymnopleurus pilu- 

 larius,^ while constructing the ball of dung destined 

 to contain its eggs, let it roll into a hole, whence the 

 insect tried long and vainly to extract it. Finding 

 this only waste of time, he hastened to a neighbouring 

 heap of manure to seek three of his kind, which, 

 uniting their efforts to his, succeeded in getting out 

 the ball, and then went back to their own work." 



I humbly beg pardon of my illustrious master, 

 M. Blanchard, but assuredly things do not happen 

 thus. First, the two accounts are so much alike 

 that they must have had a common origin. After 

 observations not followed up closely enough to 

 merit blind confidence, Illiger put forward the 

 story of his Gymnopleurus, and the same fact has 

 been attributed to the Scarabaeus because it really 

 is a common thing to find two of these insects busy 

 rolling a ball, or getting it out of some difficult 

 position. But the partnership does not at all prove 

 that one went to ask help from the other in some 

 difficulty. I have had a large measure of the patience 



1 G. pilularius is a scavenger beetle nearly related to the Scara- 

 baeus. As its name suggests, it too rolls balls of dung. It is found 

 very generally, even in the north, whereas S. sacer scarcely leaves the 

 shores of the Mediterranean. 



