218 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



will in twenty-four hours devour so much food, and grow so 

 quickly, as to increase their weight two hundred fold ! In 

 five days after being hatched, they arrive at their full growth 

 and size, which is a remarkable instance of the care of Pro- 

 vidence in fitting them for the part they are destined to act : 

 for if a longer time was required for their growth, their food 

 would not be a fit aliment for them, or they would be too 

 long in removing the nuisance it is given in charge to them 

 to dissipate. Thus we see there was some ground for Linne's 

 assertion under M. vomitoria, that three of these flies will 

 devour a dead horse as quickly as would a lion. 



As soon as the various tribes of MuscidcB have opened the 

 way, and devoured the softer parts, a whole host of beetles, 

 Necropliorif Silphcs, Dermestes, CholevcB, and Staphylinidce, 

 actively second their labours. Wasps and hornets also come 

 in for their portion of the spoil ; and even ants, which prowl 

 every where, rival their giant competitors in the quantity 

 consumed by them ; so that in no very long time, especially 

 in warm climates, the muscular covering is removed from the 

 skeleton, which is then cleansed from all remains of it by the 

 little Corynetes cceriileus and rujicollis (which last is so inter- 

 esting, as having been the means of saving the life of La- 

 treille^), and several NitidulcEp' Even the horns of animals 

 have an appropriate genus ( Trox) which inhabits them, and 

 feeds upon their contents. And not only are large animals 

 thus disposed of, even the smallest are not suffered long to 

 annoy us. The burying beetle {Necrophorus Vespillo) inters 

 the bodies of small animals, such as mice, several assisting 

 each other in the work ^ ; and those to which they commit 

 their eggs afford an ample supply of food to their larvse. ^ 

 Ants also in some degree emulate these burying insects, at 

 least they will carry off the carcasses of insects into their 

 nests ; and I once saw some of the horse-ants dragging 



1 See Latr. Gen. i. 275. 



2 This property in the carrion insects may be turned to a good account by 

 the comparative anatomist, who has only to flay the body of one of the smaller 

 animals, anoint it with honey, and bury it in an ant-hill ; and in a short time he 

 will obtain a perfect skeleton, denudated of every fibril of muscle, though with 

 the ligaments and cartilages untouched. 



3 In India, as we learn from Col. Hearsey, a large species of Platynotus replaces 

 the Necrophori in their burying habits. 



4 Gleditsch, Abhandlungen, iii. 200. 



