BURYING-BEETLES: THE BURIAL 73 



nothing else to do, the foster-parents have sat down to 

 the feast with the nurselings. 



The undertakers are quick at rearing a family. It is at 

 most a fortnight since the Rat was laid in the earth ; and 

 here already is a vigorous population on the verge of 

 the metamorphosis. Such precocity amazes me. It 

 would seem as though the liquefaction of carrion, deadly 

 to any other stomach, is in this case a food productive of 

 especial energy, which stimulates the organism and ac- 

 celerates its growth, so that the victuals may be consumed 

 before its approaching conversion into mold. Living 

 chemistry makes haste to outstrip the ultimate reactions 

 of mineral chemistry. 



White, naked, blind, possessing the habitual attributes 

 of life in darkness, the larva, with its lanceolate outline, 

 is slightly reminiscent of the grub of the Ground-beetle. 

 The mandibles are black and powerful, making excellent 

 scissors for dissection. The limbs are short, but capable 

 of a quick, toddling gait. The segments of the abdo- 

 men are armored on the upper surface with a narrow 

 reddish plate, armed with four tiny spikes, whose office 

 apparently is to furnish points of support when the larva 

 quits the natal dwelling and dives into the soil, there to 

 undergo the transformation. The thoracic segments are 

 provided with wider plates, but unarmed. 



The adults discovered in the company of their larval 

 family, in this putridity that was a Rat, are all abomin- 

 ably verminous. So shiny and neat in their attire, when 

 at work under the first Moles of April, the Necrophori, 

 when June approaches, become odious to look upon. A 



