﻿LAMELLICORNIA — COPRIDES 



197 



exhausted, when the Scardbaeus socks a fresh store of provender 

 to be treated in a similar manner. According to M. Fabre's 

 account these events occur in the spring of the year, and when 

 the hot weather sets in the Scarabaeus passes through a period of 

 quiescence, emerging again in the autumn to recommence its 

 labours, which are now, however, directed immediately to the con- 

 tinuance of the species : a larger subterranean chamber is formed, 

 and to this retreat the beetle carries dung till it has accumulated 

 a mass of the size of a 

 moderate apple ; this mate- 

 rial is carefully arranged, 

 previous to the laying 

 of the egg, in such a 

 manner that the grub to 

 be hatched from the egg 

 shall find the softest and 

 most nutritive portions 

 close to it, while the 

 coarser and more innu- 

 tritions parts are arranged 

 so as to be reached by the 

 grub only after it has 

 acquired some strength ; 

 lastly, a still more deli- 

 cate and nutritive paste 

 is prepared by the mother 

 beetle for a first meal for 

 the newly -hatched grub, 

 by some of the food being- 

 submitted to a partial digestion in her organs ; finally, the egg 

 is deposited in the selected spot, and the chamber closed. Certain 

 of the Coprides exhibit, according to Fabre, some extremely 

 exceptional features in their life-histories. The mother, instead 

 of dying after oviposition, survives, and sees the growth of her 

 young to the perfect state, and then produces another generation. 

 No similar case can be pointed out in Insects, except in the Social 

 kinds ; but from these the Coprides observed by Fabre differ pro- 

 foundly, inasmuch as the number of eggs produced by the mother 

 is extremely small ; Copris hispanus, for instance, producing in 

 each of its acts of oviposition only one, two, or three eggs. 



Fig. 89. — Scarabaeus sacer. Portugal. 



