240 Bugs, Butterflies, and Beetles 



pushes the hall with its hind legs, on the other 

 side of the ball the other bug stands on its hind 

 legs and pulls the ball with its hands. The ball is 

 covered with earth, dust or sand so that there is 

 notliing disagreeable about it any more than if it 

 were a clay ball. The balls are buried by the 

 beetles, sometimes many inches below the surface 

 of the ground. The eggs hatch out inside the ball 

 and the grub eats the material of which the ball 

 is made (Fig. 218, larva full-grown, ready for a 

 change). I believe there is but one egg in each 

 ball and the grub stays in its case until it changes 

 into a tumble-bug. 



There are a number of different beetles which 

 we might call manure beetles in the United States, 

 some that I have seen in Alabama and IMississippi 

 are very brilliantly colored, some have a horn like 

 a rhinoceros. They all belong to the same family 

 with the sacred scarabseus of Egypt, the sacred 

 tumble-bug which is engraved on gems, sculptured 

 in the stones and was made into necklaces and all 

 sorts of ornaments by the ancient Egyptians. The 

 old pottery, stone or precious-stone scarabs are 

 considered very valuable relics and bring big prices, 

 but it is rumored that some Yankee in Egypt is 



