The Sacred Beetle in Captivity 



combined with my study of other Dung- 

 beetles in captivity — Gymnopleuri, Copres 

 and Onthophagi — is summed up in what 

 follows. 



The ball which is destined to contain the 

 egg is not made in public, in the hurry and 

 confusion of the dung-yard. It is a work of 

 art and supreme patience, demanding con- 

 centration and scrupulous care, both alike 

 impossible in the thick of the crowd. One 

 needs solitude in order to think out a plan 

 of operations and set to work. So the 

 mother digs in the sand a burrow four to 

 eight inches deep. It is a rather spacious 

 hall communicating with the outer world 

 by a much narrower passage. The insect 

 brings into it carefully selected materials, 

 doubtless in spherical form. There must be 

 many journeys, for towards the end of the 

 work the contents of the cell are out of all 

 proportion to the size of the entrance-door 

 and could not be stored at one attempt. I 

 remember a Spanish Coprls who, at the time 

 of my Inspection, was finishing a ball as big 

 as an orange at the far end of a burrow 



entomologiques in their original form. Chapters III. to 

 VII. of the present volume are translations of Chapters I. 

 to V^. of the fifth volume of the Souvenirs, published many 

 years later, at a time when Fabre had completed his study 

 of the Sacred Beetle. — Translator's Note. 



49 



