284 



TliAxVSFORJIAlVOiVS OF IiYSECfS. 



crossed by two broad bands of a light red tint. When the dead 

 body of a mole or a field-mouse is left in the fields, the sexton 

 beetles soon find it out, and begin to collect around in consider- 

 able numbers. They are not going to eat the corpse, but they 

 intend to lay their eggs in it. If the body is allowed to remain 

 exposed to the air, it will dry up, or be eaten by other animals, 



THE METAMORPHOSES OF THE SEXTON BEETLE {NcCVOpJlOrUS VeSpUlo). 



so that if any larva; were therein they would be destroyed, or they 

 would perish for want of food. But the sextons have an instinct 

 which prevents their young from being exposed to such dangers, 

 and they set to work and bury the body, so that their larva; can 

 nourish themselves upon it without being disturbed. They hollow 

 out the ground beneath the body, and make a tolerably deep hole 

 by throwing out the soil with their large legs ; then the animal 



