THE NECROPHORL 285 



sinks down, and they cover it up with the earth which had col- 

 lected around the margin of the pit. These beetles are remarkable 

 for the subtle sense of smell they possess. They fly swiftly, 

 and are constantly hunting, with the aid of their acute sense of 

 smelling, for the dead bodies of animals. In Russia, where dead 

 bodies are often buried in shallow graves, the sexton beetles 

 may be seen in hundreds in the churchyards. They dig a hole 

 in the earth over the body, and take up their abode in the sub- 

 stance of the corpse. They generally manage, by dint of hard 

 work, to buiy a small animal in twenty-four hours ; they then 

 take up their dwelling in the body and feed upon it. The female 

 speedily lays her eggs in the decomposing substances ; these 

 soon become larvae, and feed, like their parents, upon the putrid 

 matter until they acquire their full growth ; they then get out 

 of the body and bury themselves in the earth to the depth of 

 several feet, and remain there for three or four weeks, and undergo 

 their metamorphoses. The larvae make a cell, in which they 

 undergo their transformations. They are oblong in shape, are yel- 

 lowish in colour, and they have leathery plates on the segments of 

 the thorax and abdomen. They have very small antennae, power- 

 ful mandibles, toothed like a saw, the jaws furnished with little 

 points like those of a comb, and short legs, which enable them 

 to dig. Although they live in darkness, they have two eyes, which 

 are very distinct in young individuals, but which seem to become 

 atrophied as the growth of the adults approaches its maturity. 



The engraving represents a small dead animal, which is be- 

 ginning to disappear in consequence of the beetles having dug 

 beneath it. The perfect insects are figured in different attitudes. 

 On the left, low down, there is a larva, and above it a nymph. 



The carrion beetles of the genus SilpJia — and which are com- 

 monly called Shield Beetles in France, on account of the flattened 

 shape of their body, and from the projection of the prothorax 

 above the head — have ten joints in the antennae, and the last four 

 pieces form its club-like end. Their elytra are margined off, as 

 it were, and they have long and thin feet. These insects, which 

 are rather small, run with great rapidity, and have very subtle 

 powers of scent, for, like the Nccrophori, they soon find out the 

 dead body of any animal which may have been left on the 



