BUKYING-BEETLE. 247 



and in the more still hours of darkness, may be heard 

 to a very considerable distance. " Not many sum- 

 mers ago," says Mr. White, " I endeavoured to trans- 

 plant a colony of these insects to the terrace in my 

 garden, by boring deep holes in the sloping turf. 

 The new inhabitants staid some time, and fed and 

 sang ; but they wandered away by degrees, and were 

 heard at a greater distance every morning ; so it ap- 

 pears that on this emergency they made use of their 

 wings in attempting to return to the spot from which 

 they were taken."* The manner in which these in- 

 sects lay their eggs is represented in the preceding 

 figure; which is that of an insect nearly allied to 

 the crickets, though of a different genus. 



A more laborious task is performed by an insect by 

 no means uncommon in Britain, the Burying-Beetle 

 (Necrophorus vespiilo), which may be easily recog- 

 nised by its longish body, of a black colour, with two 

 broad and irregularly-indented bands of yellowish- 

 brown. A foreign naturalist, M. Gleditsch, gives a 

 very interesting account of its industry. He had 

 "often remarked that dead moles, when laid upon 

 the ground, especially if upon loose earth, were al- 

 most 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 dig- 

 ging 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 sin- 

 gular inhumation. Not perceiving anything par- 

 ticular in the mole, he buried it again ; and on ex- 

 amining it at the end of six days, he found it swarm- 

 ing with maggots, apparently the issue of the beetles, 

 which M. Gleditsch now naturally concluded had 

 buried the carcase for the food of their future young. 

 * Nat. Hisl. Sdbonie. 



