144 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



product of nature, such food is not the ordinary pabuhim of the species. Its proper 

 place is in the open, and its office in the scheme of nature is to act as a secondary 

 scavenger. When the blow-ffy grubs and the carrion-beetles have eaten the soft 

 flesh of a dead bird or mammal, and only the hard sinews and dried skin are 

 left, the bacon-beetle takes the remains in hand and clears them away. 

 Several allied species are only to be met with out of doors, and a good place ta 

 find them is in the dry and shrivelled skins of stoats, rats, hawks, and the 

 like that decorate the gam.ckeeper's gibbets, where he hangs his victims as a 

 warning to their fellows. 



One species, 1 whose black fore-body is decorated with a spot of white on 

 each side, has made a dead set upon the skin and leather merchants, and has at 

 times worked such havoc in their warehouses that we have it upon the authority 



of Westwoocl that in his time the London 

 merchants in these commodities combined 

 to offer a reward of £20,000 for an 

 effectual remedy against its depreda- 

 tions. The impotence of man against 

 his minute enemies is shown by the fact 

 that this handsome reward was never 

 earned. To annihilate a human army 

 or destroy a fortified city is an easy task 

 compared with the conquest of a tiny 

 Insect. Even the naturalist with his 

 knowledge of the crafty ways of some 

 of these Insects, has to acknowledge 

 himself beaten, when, even w'ith the aid 

 of air-tight drawers and outer doors to 

 his cabinets, he finds his treasured 

 specimens reduced to powder by the 

 industry of the museum-beetle. It is 

 true that with the carefully made 

 modern cabinets there is little chance 

 of the Insect breaking in, even though 

 a newly hatched grub by the aid of its brushes of hair can lever its way through 

 an almost microscopic crevice ; but an egf^ may be attached to an Insect received 

 from a collection lioused in a cabinet of older type, and before that drawer is 

 examined again much mischief may be done. 



The beetle itself is only a couple of millimetres long ; and it has a trick of 

 tucking its head and legs luider its body when disturbed, and then it looks like a 

 mere speck of dead refuse. The grubs are (]uite prettv little creatures. In addition 

 to the general hairy covering there are two brushes at the tail end which are 

 ordinarily laid over the back, but when the creature is disturlit'd tluse are erected 

 and the hairs spread out. What can be the i)urpose of this (lisi)la\- it is not c^asy 

 to determine. Sometimes a box containing suri)lus spt'cimeiis that has been put 

 aside and forgotten is fou.nd to swarm with these larv.x, the specimens the box 



' I )('rnu-sUs vulpiniis. 



P!'oto by] [E. Step. F.L.S. 



Ax Outdoor Bacon-Beetle. 



This beetle attacks the dried carcases of dead animals after the 

 more succulent portions have been consumed by the grubs of blow- 

 flies and carrion-beetles. The grub is shown to the left. It is 

 covered with long, black hairs. The beetle also is black, but a 

 pretty mottled effect is produced by shining scales which reflect tlie 

 light. The Insects are here shown four times larger than the actual 

 size. 



