AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 199 
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. Vale- 
rianus supposes, on account of the orbicular form of its pellets of dung, and 
the notion of their being rolled from sunrise to sunset; of the sun, because 
of the angular projections 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 sup- 
posed birth from a male only. 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. 
These beetles, however, in point of industry must yield the palm to one 
(Necrophorus Vespillo), whose singular history was first detailed by M. 
Gleditsch in the Acts of the Berlin Society for 1752. He begins by inform- 
ing 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 where it had been laid, 
he found it buried to the depth of three inches, and under it four beetles, 
which seemed to have been the agents in this singular inhumation. Not 
perceiving any thing particular in the mole, he buried it again ; and on 
examining it at’the end of six days he found it swarming with maggots 
be i the'issue of the beetles, which M. Gleditsch now naturally con- 
cluded had buried the carcass for the food of their future young. To 
determine these points more clearly, he put four of these insects into a 
glass vessel half filled with earth and properly secured, and upon the sur- 
face of the earth two frogs. In less than twelve hours one of the frogs 
was interred by two of the beetles: the other two ran about the whole 
day as if busied in measuring the dimensions of the remaining corpse, which 
on the third day was also found buried. He then introduced a dead linnet. 
A pair of the beetles were soon engaged upon the bird. They began their 
operations by pushing out the earth frat under the body so as to forma 
cavity for its reception ; and*it was curious to see the efforts which the 
beetles made by dragging at the feathers of the bird from below to pull it 
into its grave. The male having driven the female away, continued the 
work alone for five hours. He lifted up the bird, changed its place, turned 
it, and arranged it in the grave, and from time to time came out of the 
ole, mounted upon it and trod it under foot, and then retired below and 
pulled it down. ‘At length, apparently wearied with this uninterrupted 
labour, it came forth and leaned its head upon the earth beside the bird 
without the smallest motion as if to rest itself, for a full hour, when it 
again crept under the earth, The next day in the morning the bird was an 
inch and a half under ground, and the trench remained open the whole 
day, the corpse seeming as if laid out upon a bier, syrrounded with a 
Tampart of mould. In the evening it had sunk half an inch lower, and in 
2 J. Pierii Valeriani Hieroglyphica, 983—95. Mouffet, 156. 
? Travels, ii. 306. Compare M. Latreille’s learned Memoir entitled Des Znsectes 
peints ou sculptes sur les Monumens antiques de UEgypte. Ann. du Mus. 1819; and 
also the Rey, F, W. Hope’s Observations in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. 172. 
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