More Beetles 



another exploiter of the dead. Two species 

 visit my pans: S. rugosa, linn, and S. 

 sinuata, fab. Although assiduously fre- 

 quented by both species, my appliances tell 

 me nothing definite about the history of 

 these two habitual associates of the Dermes- 

 tes and the Saprinus. Perhaps I took up 

 the matter too late. 



At the end of the winter, indeed, I find 

 beneath a toad the family of the Wrinkled 

 Silpha. It consists of some thirty naked 

 larvae, glossy, black, flat and tapering to a 

 point. The abdominal segments end on 

 either side in a spike aimed backwards. 

 The penultimate segment has short, brist- 

 ling filaments. Hidden in the shadow of 

 the disembowelled toad, these larvae are 

 nibbling the dry meat, long toasted in the 

 sun. 



About the first week in May, they repair 

 underground, where each of them digs itself 

 a spherical recess. The nymphs are con- 

 tinually on the alert. At the slightest dis- 

 turbance, they twirl their pointed abdomen, 

 brandishing it to and fro with a rapid whirl- 

 ing motion. At the end of the same month, 

 the adults leave the soil. Equally precocious, 

 it would seem, are the insects that come to 

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