1963] 
Matthews — Behavior of Canthon 
87 
by the male, who used fighting movements to be described in the 
section on combat, but she persisted until the male accepted her 
presence. She climbed onto the ball and, since it was completed, it 
was rolled off at 1312 by the male, with the female clinging to it. 
The activities of this pair were followed for nine days in captivity 
and resulted in the formation of a brood pear containing an egg. 
The other instance was observed near Welaka, Fla., on 6 May, 
1961. A male was first seen making a ball with very great care and 
was observed for 20 minutes painstakingly patting the ball to a smooth 
sphere. During this time the beetle had to repulse no less than seven 
male intruders (the sex was checked in each case) apparently bent 
on robbing the ball. One intruder was chased some distance. The 
eighth intruder appeared when the ball was completed and about to 
be rolled off and was met with equal hostility, being rebuffed several 
times. It kept coming back, however, and was finally accepted, climb- 
ing onto the ball and being rolled off with it. On subsequent examina- 
tion it proved to be a female. 
These two observed instances of the moment of encounter are very 
much alike in that in both cases the male had completed the ball before 
he was joined by the female, and the male rebuffed the female several 
times before accepting her. Perhaps when the encounter occurs earlier, 
as it normally does, the male is less hostile. 
The making of the ball. It will be noted from the first account 
above that the cutting and shaping of the brood ball by the male took 
35 min, whereas cutting and shaping the food ball takes a maximum of 
20 min. I also came across seven more pairs at work on the brood ball 
and watched them work for more than 20 additional minutes in all 
cases. It is evident, therefore, that a great deal more care is taken in 
making the brood ball, particularly in the shaping process. The inter- 
esting point is that a male beetle makes a brood ball even when he is all 
by himself, before being joined by the female. This is shown by the 
length of time spent in shaping the ball, and the experienced observer 
can always tell quite readily whether a food ball or a brood ball is 
being made by a lone beetle. I have seen ten males making brood balls 
alone, but no females. It seems most probable, therefore, that the 
male initiates the brood ball making process and is then joined by the 
female, who cooperates in both the cutting (fig. 3) and shaping (fig. 
4) processes. 
As may be imagined from the great deal of shaping that the brood 
ball undergoes, it is a much more perfect sphere than the food ball 
