The Dung-Beetles of the Pampas 



to stock her burrow with a number of ovoids, 

 after the example of the Lunary Copris. 

 She does nothing of the sort, preferring to 

 roam from one find to the other and to take 

 from each the wherewithal to model a single 

 pellet, which is left to itself for the soil to 

 incubate. She is not driven to practise 

 economy even when she is working the pro- 

 duce of the Sheep far from the pastures of 

 the Argentine. 



Can this be because the jewel of the 

 pampas dispenses with the father's collabor- 

 ation? I dare not follow up the argument, 

 for the Spanish Copris would give me the 

 lie, by showing me the mother occupied alone 

 in settling the family and nevertheless stock- 

 ing her one pit with a number of pellets. 

 Each has her share of customs the secret 

 of which escapes us. 



The two next, Megathopa bicolor and M. 

 intermedia, have certain points of resem- 

 blance with the Sacred Beetle, for whose 

 ebon hue they substitute a blue black. The 

 first besides brightens his corselet with mag- 

 nificent copper reflections. With their long 

 legs, their forehead with its radiating 

 denticulations and their flattened wing-cases, 

 they are fairly successful smaller editions of 

 the famous pill-roller. 

 241 



