i, larva of the Sexton Beetle, b, pupa, c, perfect beetle. 



CHAPTER VI. 



HISTORY OF THE SEXTON BEETLE.* 



THE sexton beetle is about an inch in length ; it is of a 

 black colour, and so fetid that the hands smell for hours 

 after handling it ; and if it crawl on woollen clothes which 

 are not washed, the smell continues for several days. The 

 sexton beetle lays its eggs in the bodies of putrifying dead 

 animals, which, when practicable, it buries in the ground. 

 In Russia, where the poor people are buried but a few inches 

 below the surface of the ground, the sexton beetles avail 

 themselves of the bodies for this purpose, and the graves 

 are pierced with their holes in every direction ; at evening, 

 hundreds of these beetles may be seen in the church-yards, 



* Authority : Rusticus of Godalming. See Entomological Magazine, 

 vol. iii. p. 506. 



