CHAPTER XVIII 



THE BULL ONTHOPHAGUS: THE LARVA; 

 THE NYMPH 



MAY is the nesting-month of the differ- 

 ent Onthophagi and of the Bull 

 Onthophagus in particular. The mothers 

 now go underground to some little depth, 

 under the shelter of the cave whence the 

 building and victualling-materials are ex- 

 tracted. Unaided by the males, who, heed- 

 less of family-cares, continue to lead a life 

 of jollity, they fashion their cabins and stuff 

 them with provisions after the egg is laid. 

 The work, for that matter, is crude and 

 elementary and hardly needs the collabora- 

 tion of the horned dandies. Five or six 

 establishments at most, each founded in a 

 couple of days, represent the whole of a 

 mother's work and leave plenty of time for 

 spring revelry. 



The grub is hatched in about a week; and 

 a strange and p; radoxical little creature it 

 is. On its back it has an enormous sugar- 

 loaf hump, the weight of which overbalances 



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