52 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



have provided a further supply of food. Here 

 another big ball is rolled up, and the same process 

 is gone through again. This happens in the spring 

 and early summer. During the hottest part of 

 summer the Scarab remains in the earth after one 

 of these Gargantuan feasts, and enjoys a period of 

 repose until the autumn brings cooler and moister 

 days. Then the Scarab arouses and ventures into 

 the world again. 



At this season the female Scarab appears to realize 

 that she has a duty to perform in the interests of 

 her race. A bigger excavation is made in the earth, 

 and when it is completed a great quantity of dung 

 is rolled into it, and graded. The coarsest material 

 is so arranged that the grub for whose food it is 

 intended will not reach this portion until its digestive 

 powers are well developed. It will reach and eat 

 a finer grade before that time ; but for its newly 

 formed jaws and delicate stomach the mother 

 Scarab prepares a special layer by partially digesting 

 some of the food herself. In this portion the egg 

 is laid, so that when it hatches, the young grub 

 makes its first meal of this specially prepared food. 

 When the food is all gone the grub is fully grown, 

 and changes into a chrysalis, and in spring issues 

 from its cell as a perfect Scarab. 



The sub-family Coprides, to which the Scarabs 

 belong, includes about five thousand species of 

 beetles, and most of these have similar habits of 

 burying dung for the sustenance of their grubs. 

 The well-known Tumble-dung Beetle (Ateuchus 



