AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG, 349 



clay or sand, with no other tools than his nails and teeth, 

 five or six caverns twenty feet deep and four or five wide 

 —for such an undertaking would not be comparatively 

 greater than that of the insects in question. 



Similar laborious exertions are not confined to the bee 

 or Sphex tribe. Several beetles in depositing their eggs 

 exhibit examples of industry equally extraordinary. The 

 common dor or clock (Geotrupes stercorarius y L.), which 

 may be found beneath every heap of dung, digs a deep cy- 

 lindrical hole, and, carrying down a mass of the dung to the 

 bottom, in it deposits its eggs. And many of the species of 

 the genus Scarabceus of MacLeay a , roll together wet dung 

 into round pellets, deposit an egg in the midst of each, 

 and when dry push them backwards by their hind feet 

 to holes of the surprising depth of three feet, which they 

 have previously dug for their reception, and which are 

 often several yards distant. Frequently the road lies 

 across a depression in the surface, and the pellet when 

 nearly pushed to the summit rolls back again. But our 

 patient Sisyphi are not easily discouraged. They repeat 

 their efforts again and again, and in the end their perse- 

 verance is rewarded by success. The attention of these 

 insects to their eggs is so remarkable, that it was ob- 

 served in the earliest ages, and is mentioned by ancient 

 writers, but with the addition of many fables, as that 

 they were all of the male sex, that they became young 

 again every year, that they rolled the pellets containing 

 their eggs from sun-rise to sun-set every day, for twenty- 



a Mr. W. S. MacLeay in a very remarkable and learned work 

 {HorcB Entomologies) has very properly restored its ancient name to 

 this genus. 



