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SUMMER 



the silence of the August and September dusk ; and often 

 the air at that reposeful season is so quiet that we can hear, 

 if we stand still, the beetle rasping its way through the 

 underground tunnel which it bores beneath animal droppings. 

 The under parts of the dor-beetle are often thickly infested 

 with bright red mites, which make a striking contrast of 

 colour with the dark blue of their host. These mites are 

 closely related to the similar parasites of cage-birds. At 

 first sight it seems that the beetle is carrying a brood of 



newly hatched young. If it did carry its family on airy 

 excursions, the voyage would be not so strange as that actu- 

 ally achieved by the larvae of the oil-beetle. It is not for 

 nothing that this soft, fat beetle frequents the sunny banks 

 where the April flowers blossom most freely. Hither come 

 the wild bees, and they are the destined hosts of the youth- 

 ful oil-beetles. They are hatched as active little six-legged 

 creatures, and wait on the newly opened blossoms for the 

 visits of the bees. While the bees are grappling with the 

 blossom for nectar or pollen, the beetle larvae seize hold 

 of them, and are carried back to their nests. There they 

 feed on the honey which belongs by right to the young 



