

BEETLES i57 



quantities of these grubs ; and but for the senseless and wanton 

 destruction of many insect-eating birds, Nature would provide a 

 check on the immense increase of these insects, which from time 

 to time cause such serious damage. 



For a graphic description of the habits of the Sacred Scarab 

 Beetle (Scarab&us sacer) we cannot go to a better authority than 

 Monsieur Fabre, who so devotedly watched and described the 

 habits of this insect. My only regret is that lack of space forbids 

 my quoting the whole of his vivacious and delightful description : 



" The edge of the beetle's head is large and flat, and armed 

 with six angular teeth arranged in a semicircle. It is the tool 

 for digging and dividing, the rake to lift or reject such vegetable 

 fibres as are not nutritious, to seek out what is best, and rake it 

 together. A choice is thus made, for these keen connoisseurs 

 like one thing better than another a somewhat careless choice, 

 indeed, if the beetle alone be concerned, but one which is rigorously 

 scrupulous if the maternal ball be in question, with its central 

 hollow where the egg will hatch. Then every scrap of fibre is 

 rejected, and only the quintessence of the stercoraceous matter is 

 used to build the inner layer of the cell. Then, as soon as it is 

 hatched the young larva finds in the walls of its dwelling a dainty 

 food which strengthens digestion and enables it later to attack 

 the coarse outer layers. For its own needs the beetle is less 

 fastidious, contenting itself with a general selection. 



" Provender being gathered, the next thing is to retire from 

 the melee and carry it to a fitting place. Now we see some of 

 the most characteristic habits of the Scarabaeus. He sets out at 

 once, embracing the ball with the long hind legs, whose talons, 

 planted in the mass, serve as pivots leans on the intermediary 

 legs as pivots, and using as levers the flat of the toothed forefeet, 

 which press the ground alternately, journeys backward with his 

 load, the body bent, the head low, and the hinder part upraised. 

 The hind feet, which are the chief organs in the mechanism, move 

 continually, going and coming and changing the place where the 

 talons are stuck in, to alter the axis of rotation, to keep the load 

 balanced and advance by an alternate push right and left. Thus 

 the ball comes in contact with the ground in every part of it, 

 which gives it a perfect shape and lends consistency to the outer 

 layer by a uniform pressure. Courage ! it moves, it rolls, and 



