THE BEETLES. 343 



attracted by the smell, at once recognised the difficulty of 

 the situation, and undermined the little post until it fell 

 over, whereupon they buried toad and stick. Dead animals 

 hung on a stick by means of a thread, so that they rest on 

 the ground but cannot sink in, are obtained by the Necro- 

 phori by undermining the hindering stick. 



The Xecrophori, like the greater number of their beetle 

 allies, possess a very well-developed stridulating, or rasping 

 apparatus, by means of which they emit a very broken, 

 jarring note, which, perhaps apart from other purposes 

 serves to call them together for the performance of their 

 common work. They can also, like all insects, Tinderstand 

 and communicate with each other by means of their antennas. 

 The same is, of course, true of beetles without exception, 

 and there can be no doubt that they use their often very 

 various and even curiously made antenna?, just as do bees 

 and ants, for mutual comprehension, even though the com- 

 munications which they have to make to each other are of a 

 far simpler nature than Avith the animals named. Herr 

 George Goelitz writes as follows to the author from Marys- 

 ville, Marshall County, Kansas (North America), under date 

 Dec. 25, 1875 : " Last summer, in the month of July, I 

 was one day in my field, and found there a mound of fresh 

 earth like a nick-hill, on Avhich a striped black and red 

 beetle, Avith long legs, and about the size of a hornet, was 

 busy taking aAvay the earth from a hole that led like a pit 

 into the mound, and levelling the place. After I had 

 Avatched this beetle for some time, I noticed a second beetle 

 of the same kind, Avhich brought a little lump of earth from 

 the interior to the opening of the hole, and then disappeared 

 sixain in the mound ; every four or five minutes a pellet 

 came out of the hole, and Avas carried aAvay by the first- 

 named beetle. After I had watched these proceedings for 

 about half-an-hour, the beetle which had been working 

 underground came out and ran to its comrade. Both put 

 their heads together, and clearly held a com-ersation, for 

 immediately aftei-Avards they changed Avork The one which 

 had been Avorking outside Avent into the mound, the other 

 took the outside labor, and all Avent on A'igorously. I watched 

 the affair still for a little longer, and went away AA'ith the 

 notion that these insects could understand each other just 

 like men." Klingelhb'ffer, of Darmstadt (in Urchin, loc.cit., 



7. 2 



