THE EGGS OF INSECTS. 55 



In some cases the food for the young has to he 

 positively provided, and even placed in a proper 

 situation by the parents ; and this they never fail to 

 effect with the greatest completeness, whatever may 

 be the cost of labour necessary to effect the arrange- 

 ments ; and although they never live to see the happy 

 results of their contrivance, as the eggs are not 

 hatched till after they have perished, which they 

 invariably do when they have performed that last 

 and most important act of their existence — the safe 

 deposit of the eggs which are to continue their 

 species. The insect here referred to is the handsome 

 Red-spotted Beetle, known as the Burying Beetle, 

 which, when the time for depositing the eggs arrives, 

 seeks the dead body of some small animal, which, 

 when found, is buried with great labour ; and the 

 eggs are then deposited in the substance which 

 is destined to form their food when hatched. Thus, 

 not only is the proper food provided, but it is placed 

 in a fitting situation for the young larvae, which in 

 their first stage are earth grubs, and consequently 

 subterranean feeders. The kind of Beetles described 

 are contented with the bodies of small animals that 

 have died a natural death ; but other species kill 

 insects for the express purpose of placing them in a 

 subterranean larder, to become the food of their 



