258 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



even ants, which prowl everywhere, rival their giant com- 

 petitors in the quantity consumed by them ; so that in no 

 very long time, especially in warm climates, the muscular 

 covering is removed from the skeleton, which is then 

 cleansed from all remains of it by the little Cotynetes CCE- 

 ruleus and nificollis, (which last is so interesting, as hav- 

 ing been the means of saving the life of Latreille%) and 

 several Nitidul(.c b . Even the horns of animals have an 

 appropriate genus ( Trox] which inhabits them, and feeds 

 upon their contents. And not only are large animals 

 thus disposed of, even the smallest are not suffered long 

 to annoy us. The burying beetle (Necrophorus Fespillo] 

 inters the bodies of small animals, such as mice, several 

 assisting each other in the work; and those to which 

 they commit their eggs afford an ample supply of food to 

 their Iarva3 c . Ants also in some degree emulate these 

 burying insects, at least they will carry off the carcases 

 of insects into their nests ; and I once saw some of the 

 horse-ants dragging away a half-dead snake of about the 

 size of a goose-quill d . Some insects will even attack 

 living animals and make them their prey, thus contri- 

 buting to keep them within due limits. The common 

 earth-worm is attacked and devoured by a centipede 



* See Latr. Gen. i. 275. 



b This property in the carrion insects may be turned to a good ac- 

 count by the comparative anatomist, who has only to flay the body 

 of one of the smaller animals, anoint it with honey, and bury it in an 

 ant-hill ; and in a short time he will obtain a perfect skeleton, denu- 

 dated of every fibril of muscle, though with the ligaments and carti- 

 lages untouched. 



c Gleditsch, Abhandlungen, iii. 200. 



d It is to be observed that in our cold climates, during the winter 

 months, when excrement and putrescent animal matter are not so 

 offensive, they are left to the action of the elements, insects being 

 then torpid. 



