122 DENIZENS OF THE DESERT 



my journeys across the bleakest wind-swept 

 sands of the deserts, where the very minimum 

 of animal life was existent, and where few spe- 

 cies of even the hardiest xerophytic plants eked 

 out a miserable round of life, I have found the 

 pinacate beetles in comparative abundance. 

 They are exceptionally hardy creatures and 

 even in such untoward places live to be several 

 years old ; at least this many be said of the more 

 resistant species. Most of the species are night 

 wanderers, but many are abroad in the scorch- 

 ing light of the desert days. 



