Carrion Beetles 221 



CARRION BEETLES 



Among the insects we have various trades and 

 professions, including divers, swimmers, mud- 

 daubers, paper-makers, net makers, scavengers, and 

 now we come to sextons, imdertakers and grave- 

 diggers, a useful but unpleasant lot of little people. 

 Useful because they will quickly bury a dead shrew, 

 mouse, frog, mole, or a dead bird, and they will 

 also do their best to bury much larger creatures 

 which may be found dead in the field or forest and 

 thus prevent the carrion from poisoning the air. 



The female carrion beetles lay their eggs upon 

 the dead creatures which they bury and the young 

 beetles hatch out on the dead bodies and imme- 

 diately begin to devour the carrion. The carrion 

 beetles may be known by their very decidedly 

 clubbed antennae, their flattened bodies and their 

 disagreeable odor, not to speak of their turkey- 

 buzzard habits. The larvae or young (Fig. 201) 

 are long- jointed creatures reminding one very 

 forcibly of some sort of crustacean (a family to 

 which lobsters, crawfish and shrimp belong). The 

 larva makes itself an oval cocoon, into which it 

 retires while it is undergoing the change which 

 makes it into a beetle (Fig. 202). In that asylum 



