THE SISYPHUS BEETLE 147 



extracts it from the lump and rolls it backwards, with hei 

 back to her task, in the position adopted by the male 

 Sisyphus ; alone she excavates her burrow, and alone 

 she buries the fruit of her labour. Oblivious of the 

 gravid mother and the future brood, the male gives her 

 no assistance in her exhausting task. How different to 

 the little pellet-maker, the Sisyphus ! 



It is now time to visit the burrow. At no very great 

 depth we find a narrow chamber, just large enough for 

 the mother to move around at her work. Its very 

 exiguity proves that the male cannot remain under- 

 ground ; so soon as the chamber is ready he must 

 retire in order to leave the female room to move. We 

 have, in fact, seen that he returns to the surface long 

 before the female. 



The contents of the cellar consist of a single pellet, 

 a masterpiece of plastic art. It is a miniature repro- 

 duction of the pear-shaped ball of the Scarabaeus, a 

 reproduction whose very smallness gives an added value 

 to the polish of the surface and the beauty of its curves. 

 Its larger diameter varies from half to three-quarters of 

 an inch. It is the most elegant product of the 

 dung-beetle's art. 



But this perfection is of brief duration. Very soon the 

 little " pear " becomes covered with gnarled excrescences, 

 black and twisted, which disfigure it like so many warts. 

 Part of the surface, which is otherwise intact, disappears 

 under a shapeless mass. The origin of these knotted 

 excrescences completely deceived me at first. I sus- 

 pected some cryptogamic vegetation, some Sphericecceay 

 for example, recognisable by its black, knotted, incrusted 

 growth. It was the larva that showed me my mistake. 



