222 



Bugs, Butterflies, and Beetles 



Mother Nature has made for her blind creatures, 

 known to us as the ]\Ianimoth Cave of Kentucky, 

 the carrion beetles have sent one of their blind 

 relatives. 



The carrion beetles have a black, nasty fluid 

 with which they are only too generous and it makes 



them disagreeable to 

 handle, which is prob- 

 ably its purpose. Need- 

 less to say that it does 

 not add to their attrac- 

 tiveness, neither does 

 the fetid odor which 

 emanates from their 

 flat bodies and from 

 their larvae recommend 

 them to us as pets; 

 but in spite of their 

 ghoulish tendencies and 

 offensive odor, which they retain even when dried 

 and pinned, many of them are marked with brilliant 

 colors, like the red-spotted Great Sexton (Fig. 

 204) and it is quite interesting to watch them at 

 their work burying some small dead creature. Al- 

 though I cannot recommend them as pets, never- 



