104 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



through the heap of dead and dying, each tugging 

 and tearing at a morsel which he carries off to swallow 

 in peace, away from the inquisitive eyes of his fellows. 

 This mouthful disposed of, another is hastily cut from 

 the body of some victim, and the process is repeated 

 so long as there are bodies left. In a few minutes 

 the procession is reduced to a few shreds of still 

 palpitating flesh. 



There were a hundred and fifty caterpillars ; the 

 butchers were twenty-five. This amounts to six victims 

 dispatched by each beetle. If the insect had nothing 

 to do but to kill, like the knackers in the meat factories, 

 and if the staff numbered a hundred — a very modest 

 figure as compared with the staff of a lard or bacon 

 factory — then the total number of victims, in a day 

 of ten hours, would be thirty-six thousand. No 

 Chicago " cannery " ever rivalled such a result. 



The speed of assassination is the more remarkable 

 when we consider the difficulties of attack. The 

 beetle has no endless chain to seize its victim by one 

 leg, hoist it up, and swing it along to the butcher's 

 knife ; it has no sliding plank to hold the victim's 

 head beneath the pole-axe of the knacker ; it has to 

 fall upon its prey, overpower it, and avoid its feet 

 and its mandibles. Moreover, the beetle eats its prey 

 on the spot as it kills. What slaughter there would 

 be if the insect confined itself to killing ! 



What do we learn from the slaughter-houses of 

 Chicago and the fate of the beetle's victims ? This : 

 That the man of elevated morality is so far a very 

 rare exception. Under the skin of the civilised being 

 there lurks almost always the ancestor, the savage 



