INSECTS AT WORK AND PLAY. 143 



until 44 had been reached, when it retired into a 

 hole and went to sleep. After allowing it to 

 rest an hour or two, I again tried it with a rising 

 thermometer, and found that the second time it 

 commenced to stir at 48. 



Although insects annoy, punish, and rob man, 

 they also do him incalculable service. Flies, 

 beetles, and ants all combine to dispose of the 

 dead bodies of animals, and accomplish their 

 task with such astonishing rapidity that it has been 

 asserted that three bluebottle or flesh flies will 

 devour a dead horse as quickly as a lion. The 

 larvae of this fly grow so quickly that in a single 

 day they increase their weight two hundredfold. 



Beetles are par excellence Nature's scavengers, 

 and work, not in thousands, but in millions, to 

 rid the surface of the earth of noxious matter, 



DEAD RAT LIFTED OUT OF GRAVE BEING 

 DUG FOR HIM BY SEXTON BEETLES. 



