The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



beads, emits a smell like that of grilled meat 

 and leaves a residue of red clay. It is there- 

 fore formed of clay and sanies. Moreover, 

 the paste is sprinkled with little scraps of 

 dead flesh. At the smaller end is the egg, 

 in a chamber with a very porous roof, to al- 

 low the air to enter. 



The little undertaker has something better 

 to show than her double sausage. Like the 

 Bison Onitis, the Sisyphus and the Lunary 

 Copris, she enjoys the collaboration of the 

 father. Each burrow contains several 

 cradles, with the father and mother invaria- 

 bly present. What are the two inseparables 

 doing? They are watching their brood and, 

 by dint of assiduous repairs, keeping the lit- 

 tle sausages, which are in constant danger 

 of cracking or drying up, in good condition. 



The magic carpet which has allowed me 

 to take this trip to the pampas supplies me 

 with nothing else worth noting. Besides, 

 the New World is poor in pill-rollers and 

 cannot compare with Senegambia and the 

 regions of the Upper Nile, that paradise of 

 Copres and Sacred Beetles. Nevertheless 

 we owe it one precious detail : the group 

 which is commonly known by the name of 

 Dung-beetles is divided into two corpora- 

 262 



