124 



THE AMEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



such liquid matter, if they take any food at all ; 

 while most of their larva3 feed upon the tissues 

 of various plants, a few upon woolen clothes, a 

 a few upon furs, and a few even" upon fatty 

 substances. Yet nobody ever found one of tliese 

 Butterflies or Moths depositing- its oggs upon 

 the nectary of tiowers, where tlie honey which 

 they themselves love so dearly is to be found ; 

 but, on the contrary, they each of thorn nnj- 

 formly lay their eggs upon that parlicnlar sub- 

 stance which they are instinctively aware tliat 

 their future larvas will relish, but for which Ihcy 

 themselves have no taste whatever. 



Certain dnug-feeding beetles — for exiuni-lc, a 

 species {Ligijrus relictus. Say), whicli is oi'len 

 mistaken both in the larva and in the perfect 

 state for the common May-bug oi' May-beetle 

 (Lachnosterna quercina, Knocli)— follow (lie 

 same wonderful plan which hiis Ijcoii deiniled 

 above; that is, they deposit their eggs in any 

 mass of dung that they can find. P.nt far more 

 commonly among those beetles, llie lai\-:e of 

 which feed upon dung, we find an iinprovcment 

 upon the usual system. Instead of di^po-iting 

 their eggs in the dung, wlioi-ever i! lies, thev 

 bore deep holes in the grouiiii underneath it, 

 and carry down little pellets of it into these 

 holes, in which pellets they l;iy tlieir oggii ; thus 

 securing the savory morsels from the various 

 other insects that adopt the more primitive cus- 

 tom referred to above. On precisely the same 

 principle the Burying-beetles {Necrophorxs) 

 lay their eggs in small pieces of carrion, such 

 as dead rats, dead birds, &c., having previously 

 buried the carrion completely underground to 

 prevent Meat-flies ft-oni " fly-blowing " it, and 

 having by this means efl!efftnally monopolized 

 it for their future oflspring. On one particular 

 occasion, having deposited a full-grown dead 

 rat upon newlj'-moved earth in a particular 

 spot, as a trap for these Buryiiig-beotlcs, we 

 found that in twelve hours* time the carcass had 

 been completely buried, all but the tip of the 

 tail, by a single individual of our largest and 

 handsomest species {N'. amevicamis, Oliv.), a 

 beetle which is only IJ inch long. Jt Avould 

 puzzle an Irish laborer to bury a full-grown 

 whale in the same length of time; yet propor- 

 tionally this would bo a task of precisely the 

 same magnitude. 



In the case of the Burying-beetics and certain 

 Dung-beetles, we caught the first inkling of an 

 improvement upon the usual habits of insect 

 life ; for these, as we have seen, bury the sub- 

 stance upon which their future families are des- 

 tined to subsist, a few inches under ground. lu 

 (he case of the common Tumble-dung Beetles 



(Canthon), we find a still further development 

 of useful and intelligent industry; for these, as 

 every Amei-ican must luwe noticed, not satisfied 

 witli burying tlie pellets of dung, destined each 

 of them to feed to maturit\- the larva of a future 

 Tumble-dung, on tlie s]io( where that dung has 

 been dropped — a^, for example, is the universal 

 practice ofanalli(ul gciiiH {frcoli'i/pes) of about 

 the same size and shape — roll them over and 

 over for several \ard-;. till they have i-eached a 

 snugretiredspot. and then, and nottill then, ijro- 

 ceed to bury them. Aulhors have been much 

 puzzled to account for tisis exiraordinary pro- 

 ceeding; but, to our mind, the reason of it is 

 obvious. There are a great number of rather 

 small Cannibal Gro niid-bectles (^ rWrrtii^s family) , 

 the larvfe of which prey upon the larva; of such 

 dang-feeding beetles as bui'v tlie dung on the 

 spot where it falls, the mother-beetles being di- 

 rected to tlie spot, so as to know exactly where 

 to lay their eggs, by the presence of the unsa- 

 vory substance itself. By removing the precious 

 pellet to a suitable distance and tlicu carefully 

 burying it, the provident Tumble-dnng guards 

 against such a mishap; though, even with such 

 careful forctliought, she does not in all probabil- 

 ity cnlirely elude the attacks of other insect 

 foes. 



In conflrmatiou of the above theory as to the 

 habits of the Tumble-dung, i! may bo observed 

 that, although we have in Illinois at least four 

 disliiiot si)ecies of thedung-bui \ iiiggenus (Oeo- 

 tyijpes) just now referred to as closely allied to 

 the Tumble-dung, and only one species of Tum- 

 ble-dung (C'((«i/to»i leans, Drury) known to have 

 the remarkable habits referi'cd to above, * yet 

 the latter are at least 100 times as numerous in 

 individual as the former. Why should this be 

 so? These beetles are nearly all of the same 

 size, shape and strength. They all breed in pel- 

 lets of dung buried pretty deeply iu the earth 

 by the parent-beetle. The only difference in the 

 habits of the two generals, that the first buries 

 its dung on the spot where that dung is drop- 

 ped, and its larvas are consequently more easily 

 detected by their insect foes ; while, taught by a 

 wise Providence, the more careful Tumble-dung 

 removes its odorous pellets to a safe distance 

 from the dangerous spot, and thus escapes with 

 comparative immunity from the attacks of its 

 Cannibal enemies. Consequently the Tumble- 

 dungs beat their less skillful antagonists iu the 

 struggle for existence, and out-breed and out- 

 number them, just as the Caucasian Wliite man 

 ont-brecds and outnumbers the uncivilized Eed 



» A sin.jl.-sii^'i'.imeu of Canlhon niridis, Bosuiv., lias lioeii 

 fouii.l m:n- liock Isliiiid by the Senior PMitov; but the habits 

 ot thi^ niiiuiti,' species arc not known. 



