S523 BURYVING BEETLES. 
neath the corpse and scratching away the earth so as to form a hollow, into 
which the body sinks. When the beetles have worked for some time they 
are quite hidden, and the dead animal seems to subside into the ground as 
if by magic. 
The strength and perseverence of these beetles are so great that a very 
short time suffices to bury the creature completely below the ground, and 
the earth being scraped over it, the process is complete. The object of 
burying dead animals is to gain a proper spot wherein to deposit their eggs, 
ss = 
BURYING BEETLES. 
(Fister cadaverinus.) (Mecrophorus vestigator.) (Stlpha opaca.) 
as the larvee when hatched feed wholly on decaying animal substance. 
WE now come to the Lamellicorn Beetles, so called from the beautiful 
plates, or lamella, which decorate the antennz. This family includes a vast 
number of species, many of which, as, for example, the Common Cockchafer, 
are extremely hurtful to vegetation both in 
the larval and adult form. In this family 
are found the most gigantic specimens of 
the Coleoptera, some of which look more 
like crabs than beetles, so huge are they 
and so bizarre are their shapes. In all 
these creatures the lamellz are larger and 
more beautiful in the female than in the 
male insect. 
The COMMON COCKCHAFER is _ too 
familiar to need any description of its 
personal appearance, but the history of 
its life is not so widely known as its 
aspect. The mother beetle commences operations by depositing the eggs 
in the ground, where in good time the young are hatched. The grubs are 
unsightly-looking objects, having the end of the body so curved that the 
creatures cannot craw] in the ordinary fashion, but are obliged to lie on their 
sides. They are furnished with two terribly trenchant jaws like curved shears, 
and immediately set to work at their destructive labours. 
COCKCHAFER.—(// lolontha 
vulcaris ) 
