The Sacred Beetle and Others 



leave the nest. Their watch is incessant. 

 Father and mother, those vigilant guardians, 

 do not quit the house until the family is fit 

 to sally forth. 



The father's usefulness is manifest so long 

 as there is a house to dig and wealth to 

 amass; it is less evident when the mother is 

 cutting up her loaf into rations, shaping her 

 ovoids, polishing them and watching over 

 them. Can it be that the cavalier also takes 

 part in this delicate task, which would rather 

 seem to be a feminine monopoly? Is he 

 able, with his sharp leg, to slice up the cake, 

 to remove from it the requisite quantity for 

 a larva's sustenance and to round the piece 

 into a sphere, thus shortening the work, 

 which could be revised and perfected by the 

 mother? Does he know the art of stopping 

 up chinks, of repairing breaches, of soldering 

 slits, of scraping pellets and clearing them 

 of any dangerous vegetable matter? Does 

 he show the brood the same attentions which 

 the mother lavishes by herself in the burrows 

 of the Spanish Copris? Here the two sexes 

 are together. Do they both take part in 

 bringing up the family? 



I tried to obtain an answer by installing 

 a couple of Lunary Copres in a glass jar 

 screened by a cardboard sheath, which en- 

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