274 Insect Architecture. 



seem to know their own balls, but an equal care for the 

 whole appears to affect all the community. They form these 

 pellets while the dung remains moist, arid leave them to 

 harden in the sun before they attempt to roll them. In their 

 moving of them from place to place, both they and the balls 

 may frequently be seen tumbling about the little eminences 

 that are in their way. They are not, however, easily dis- 

 couraged ; and, by repeating their attempts, usually surmount 

 the difficulties." 



He further informs us that they " find out their subsistence 

 by the excellency of their noses, which direct them in their 

 flight to newly-fallen dung, on which they immediately go to 

 work, tempering it with a proper mixture of earth. So intent 

 are they always upon their employment, that, though handled 

 or otherwise interrupted, they are not to be deterred, but 

 immediately, on being freed, persist in their work without 

 any apprehension of danger. They are said to be so exceed- 

 ingly strong and active as to move about, with the greatest 

 ease, things that are many times their own weight. Dr. 

 Brichell was supping one evening in a planter's house of 

 North Carolina, when two of them were conveyed, without 

 his knowledge, under the candlesticks. A few blows were 

 struck on the table, and, to his great surprise, the candle- 

 sticks began to move about, apparently without any agency ; 

 and his surprise was not much lessened when, on taking one 

 of them up, he discovered that it was only a chafer that 

 moved it." 



We have often found the necklace-beetle (Carabus monilis) 

 inhabiting a chamber dug out in the earth of a garden, just 

 sufficient to contain its body, and carefully smoothed and 

 polished. From the form of this little nest, it would seem 

 as if it were constructed, not by digging out the earth and 

 removing it, but chiefly by the insect pushing its body 

 forcibly against the walls. The beetles which we have 

 found nestling in this manner have been all males; and 

 therefore it cannot be intended for a breeding-cell ; for male 

 insects are never, we believe, sufficiently generous to their 

 mates to assist them in such labours. The beetle in question 



