350 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



eight days without intermission 3 , &c. It is one of this 

 tribe of beetles (S. sacer) whose image is so often met 

 with amongst the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, with 

 whom it was a symbol of the world, of the sun, and of a 

 courageous warrior. Of the world, as P. Valerianus 

 supposes, on account of the orbicular form of its pellets 

 of dung, and the notion of their being rolled from sun- 

 rise to sun-set ; of the sun, because of the angular pro- 

 jections from its head resembling rays, and the thirty 

 joints of the six tarsi of its feet answering to the days of 

 the month ; and of a warrior, from the idea of manly 

 courage being connected with its supposed birth from a 

 male only b . It was as symbolical of this last that its image 

 was worn upon the signets of the Roman soldiers ; and 

 as typical of the sun, the source of fertility, it is yet, as 

 Dr. Clarke informs us, eaten by the women to render 

 them prolific c . 



These beetles, however, in point of industry must yield 

 the palm to one {Necrophorus Vespillo, F.) whose singu- 

 lar history was first detailed by M. Gleditsch in the Acts 

 of the Berlin Society for 1752. He begins by informing 

 us that he had often remarked that dead moles when 

 laid upon the ground, especially if upon loose earth, were 

 almost sure to disappear in the course of two or three 

 days, often of twelve hours. To ascertain the cause, he 

 placed a mole upon one of the beds in his garden. It 

 had vanished by the third morning ; and on digging 



1 Mouffet, 153. 



b J. Pierii Valeriani Hicroglt/phica, 93-5. Mouffet, 156. 



c Travels, ii. 306. Compare M. Latreille's learned Memoir en- 

 titled Des Insectes prints ou sculptes sur les Monumens antiques de 

 VEgypte. Ann. du Mus. 1819. 



