BURYINQ-BEETLE, 247 



holes in the sloping turf The new inhabitants staid 

 some time, and fed and sang; but they wandered 

 away by degrees, and were heard at a greater dis- 

 tance every morning; so it appears that on this 

 emergency they made use of their v/ings in attempting 

 to return to the spot from which they were taken."* 

 The manner in which these insects lay their eggs is 

 represented in the preceding figure; which is that of 

 an insect nearly aUied to the crickets, though of a 

 different genus. 



A more laborious task is perfo^-med by an insect by 

 no means uncommon in Britain-, the Burying Beetle 

 (JVecrojjJwriis vespillo), which may be easily recog- 

 nised by its longish body, of a black colour, with two 

 broad and irregularly indented bands of yellowish 

 brown. A foreign naturalist, M. Gleditsch, gives a 

 very interesting account of its industry. He had 

 " often remarked that dead moles, when laid upon the 

 ground, especially if upon loose earth, were almost 

 sure to disappear in the course of two or three days, 

 often of twelve hours. To ascertain the cause, he 

 placed a mole upon one of the beds in his garden. 

 It had vanished by the third morning; and on dig- 

 ging where it hsd been laid, he found it buried, to the 

 depth of three inches, and under it four beetles, which 

 seemed to have been the agents, in this singular 

 inhumation. Not perceiving anything particular in 

 the mole, he buried it again; and on examining it at 

 the end of six days, he found it swarming with mag- 

 gots, apparently the issue of the beetles, which M, 

 Gleditsch now naturally concluded had buried the 

 carcass for the food of their future young. To deter- 

 mine these points more clearly, he put four of these 

 insects into a glass vessel, half filled with earth and 

 properly secured, and, upon the surface of the earth, 

 two frogs. In less than twelve hours one of the frogs 

 was interred by two of the beetles; the other two ran 



* Nat. Hist. Selborne. 



