Saprini, Dermestes and Others 



my pans, to eat their fill but not to reproduce 

 their species. Family cares are postponed 

 to a later season, to the end of autumn. 



I shall mention but briefly the Necro- 

 phorus (A^. vestigator, herch.), whose 

 feats I have described elsewhere.^ He 

 comes to my apparatus, of course, but with- 

 out making a long stay, the carcases being as 

 a rule too large for his burying-methods. 

 For that matter, I myself would thwart his 

 enterprises if it did suit him. I want to see 

 not burials but operations in the open air. 

 If the sexton is persistent, I dissuade him 

 by pestering him. 



Let us pass on to others. Who is this, 

 assiduous visitor, but appearing only in small 

 parties, hardly more than four or five at a 

 time? It is an Hemipteron,^ a slender Bug, 

 with red wings and with stout, toothed 

 thighs to its hind-legs; it is the Spurred Aly- 

 dus (A. calcaratus, linn. J, a near kins- 

 woman of the Reduvius, so interesting be- 

 cause of her explosive egg.^ She too has 



1 Cf. The Gloiv-ivorm and Other Beetles: chaps, xi. and 

 xii. — Translator's Note. 



2 An order of insects consisting mainly of Bugs. — 

 Translator's Note. 



3 The essay on the Masked Reduvius will appear in 

 the following volume, the last volume of the series. — 

 Translator's Note. 



47 



