SANITARY OFFICERS 233 



and other dung-feeding beetles that dig vertical 

 shafts for the disposal of such matter that therein 

 their grubs may consume it in comfort and safety. 

 There are enormous numbers of different species 

 of beetles performing this service, our own country 

 possessing about seventy. There is, however, no 

 great variety in their habits ; they are consumers 

 of dung both as beetles and as grubs. 



The Sexton Beetles {Necrophorus), though a 

 much smaller group, are perhaps much better 

 known as to their habits by the general public, 

 owing to their having been often described since 

 Gleditsch first made them known in 1752. If a 

 dead mole, bird, frog, or other small animal be 

 laid upon the earth, and the spot marked, it will 

 be found after two or three days that the body has 

 disappeared. On loosening the earth, it will be 

 found buried at a depth of two or three inches. 

 Two or three beetles, their rather broad backs 

 barred with black and orange bands, may be seen 

 somewhere on or under the corpse. These are 

 the Sextons whose industry has interred the dead 

 body, their object being the provision of food for 

 their young. The female lays her eggs upon the 

 body, and from these hatch out tiny grubs which 

 at once fall to upon the abundant store of food 

 provided for them, and rapidly consume it. 



For the successful carrying out of this operation 

 it is necessary that the animal has fallen dead upon 

 tolerably soft earth. We have seen a bird that 

 had apparently met its death by flying with great 



