MINERS SI 



the egg it was supposed to. It is gathered not to 

 feed the beetle's grub, but the grub's parent. 



The Scarab is wonderfully equipped for the work 

 it has to do as one of nature's sanitary officers. 

 Its head is developed forwards as a semicircular 

 plate whose free edge is cut up into six tooth-like 

 points, and its front pair of legs are without feet 

 (tarst), but the next joint (tibia) is very large and 

 stout and its edges bear very bold teeth. The 

 hindmost pair of legs are long, and so curved that 

 they constitute an efficient pair of callipers. With 

 its shovel head and its fore legs the Scarab scoops 

 up and kneads a mass of cattle dung, which is 

 fashioned into a ball with the aid of the calliper 

 hind legs. This is kept on the roll whilst additions 

 are made to its exterior until it is of large size — 

 sometimes equal to a man's closed fist — and of 

 perfect rotundity. The Scarab pushes it back- 

 wards, holding it with the hind legs, until it arrives 

 at what is considered a suitable spot of ground. 

 The beetle then sets to work scraping with its fore 

 legs and shovelling the earth with its head until it 

 has sunk a pit large enough to bury its big ball. It 

 then gets into the pit besides its pudding and com- 

 mences to feed upon it. 



One would imagine, from the relative sizes of 

 beetle and ball, that more than half would be left 

 unconsumed ; but the Scarab sticks to the task, 

 feeding without any rest or other intermission until 

 the last scrap is eaten. Then the gourmand climbs 

 out of the hole, and flies off to where the cattle 



