More Beetles 



permit. Instead of hoarding, the Trox- 

 larvae live from day to day, I surprise 

 them, above all in the evening, discreetly 

 climbing to the top, scraping the heap above 

 their pit, collecting a shaggy armful and im- 

 mediately climbing down again tail fore- 

 most. They do not reappear so long as the 

 little bale of fur holds out. When their 

 provisions are finished and their appetite re- 

 turns, they make a fresh ascent and a fresh 

 collection. 



This frequent coming and going in the 

 shaft threatens sooner or later to bring 

 down the sandy wall. Here we see renewed 

 the industry of the Geotrupes couples, who 

 have a way of plastering the wall of their 

 pit with dung in order to avoid its collapsing 

 while the material of the huge sausage is 

 being amassed on repeated journeys; only, 

 with the Trox, it is the larva itself that un- 

 dertakes the work of consolidation. From 

 end to end it lines its gallery with the same 

 felt on which it feeds. 



In three or four weeks' time, all the hairy 

 materials of the heap have disappeared un- 

 derground, dragged by the larvae to the bot- 

 tom of their burrows. On the surface of 

 the soil nothing is left except the remains 

 68 



