BEETLES THAT "BLUFF" 229 



Instinctively realizing that the time of transfiguration is 

 at hand, the erstwhile crawling grub rises to the surface of 

 the stream, and almost in the twinkling of an eye it mounts 

 into the air on gauzy wings, there for a brief space to 

 execute an aerial dance which in its every phase is 

 amazing. Some species never see the sun. They emerge 

 as the sky begins to redden, and as its glory fades they, 

 too, expire. This brief space is all that Nature has 

 allowed them in which to fulfil her behest to all living 

 things — to increase and multiply. And myriads die 

 without even a chance to effect this consummation of 

 existence. 



The dance is a Dance of Death, and it is performed 

 by a host so vast as to surpass the bounds of belief save 

 to those who have had the good fortune to witness a scene 

 so amazing. 



D'Albertis tells of a gathering which he witnessed on 

 the Fly River, New Guinea — for these insects have a 

 world-wide distribution — wherein countless myriads were 

 assembled. " For miles the surface of the river, from 

 side to side, was white with them as they hung over it 

 on gauzy wings ; at certain moments, obeying some 

 mysterious signal, they would rise in the air and then 

 sink down anew like a fall of snow." And in this 

 assemblage he estimated that there was but one female to 

 every five or six thousand males. It is during this flight 

 that the act of mating is performed. The fortunate 

 male from the host of rivals, in this mid-air embrace is 

 aided by the foremost pair of legs, which are especially 

 curved to effect this purpose. The embrace is momentary. 

 Thereafter he dies ; to the female a somewhat longer span 

 of life remains, for she has yet to deposit her eggs, and 

 this being done en masse, she, too, expires. 



