THE SACRED BEETLE 13 



closely packed, and are covered with a hard rind. So the 

 mother Beetle prepares a nice airy room with thin walls for 

 her little grub to live in, during its first moments. There is 

 a certain amount of air even in the very centre of the pear, 

 but not enough for a delicate baby-grub. By the time he 

 has eaten his way to the centre he is strong enough to manage 

 with very little air. 



There is, of course, a good reason for the hardness of the 

 shell that covers the big end of the pear. The Scarab's burrow 

 is extremely hot : sometimes the temperature reaches boiling 

 point. The provisions, even though they have to last only 

 three or four weeks, are liable to dry up and become un- 

 eatable. When, instead of the soft food of its first meal, the 

 unhappy grub finds nothing to eat but horrible crusty stuff 

 as hard as a pebble, it is bound to die of hunger. I have 

 found numbers of these victims of the August sun. The poor 

 things are baked in a sort of closed oven. To lessen this 

 danger the mother Beetle compresses the outer layer of the 

 pear or nest with all the strength of her stout, flat fore- 

 arms, to turn it into a protecting rind like the shell of a nut. 

 This helps to ward off the heat. In the hot summer months 

 the housewife puts her bread into a closed pan to keep it 

 fresh. The insect does the same in its own fashion : by dint 

 of pressure it covers the family bread with a pan. 



I have watched the Sacred Beetle at work in her den, so 

 I know how she makes her pear-shaped nest. 



With the building-materials she has collected she shuts 

 herself up underground, so as to give her whole attention to 

 the business in hand. The materials may be obtained in 

 two ways. As a rule, under natural conditions, she kneads 

 a ball in the usual way and rolls it to a favourable spot. As 

 it rolls along it hardens a little on the surface and gathers a 

 slight crust of earth and tiny grains of sand, which is useful 

 later on. Now and then, however, the Beetle finds a suitable 

 place for her burrow quite close to the spot where she collects 



