The Geotrupes: Nest-building 



The family-lodging is another matter. 

 The propitious season is a short one; time 

 would fail, if each Individual grub had to be 

 endowed with one of those mansions. No- 

 thing could be more satisfactory than for the 

 insect to devote the leisure which the ap- 

 proach of winter gives it to digging a hole 

 of unlimited depth: this makes the retreat 

 doubly safe; and for the moment its energies, 

 which are not yet suspended, have no other 

 outlet. But at laylng-time these laborious 

 undertakings are Impossible. The hours 

 pass swiftly. In four or five weeks, a nume- 

 rous family has to be housed and victualled, 

 which puts the sinking of a deep pit that 

 requires time and patience quite out of the 

 question. 



In any case, precautions will be taken 

 against the dangers of the surface. Once Its 

 family Is settled, the unprotected adult Insect 

 Is obliged to establish Its winter quarters at 

 great depths, whence It will emerge in spring 

 accompanied by Its young ones, like the 

 Sacred Beetle; but neither the egg nor the 

 grub needs this costly refuge In the wet sea- 

 son, being well-protected by the parents' 

 industry. 



The burrow dug by the Geotrupes for the 

 benefit of her grub Is hardly deeper than that 

 293 



