90 
Psyche 
[June 
making balls, or the single male ball makers. One or two females 
may also be wandering around, presumably looking for mates. When 
one of these females comes upon a lone ball maker, she will probably 
be accepted, as we have seen. When she approaches a pair, the male 
of the pair will repel her (2). Ball rollers are also frequently 
attacked by roving males and violent fights may ensue. 
Underground activity. When the soil is sufficiently compact to 
allow it, the ball and pair are in a definite chamber which is just 
large enough to hold the ball and the beetles. There is about 5 — 10 
mm of space all around the ball. A definite passageway, which is left 
open, leads down at an angle from the surface. The nest is marked at 
the surface by a very low mound of loose soil, often very difficult 
to detect except to the experienced eye. As previously stated, the 
ball is buried 6 — 10 mm below the surface. 
What occurs underground was investigated by digging up seven 
brood balls whose burial had been observed, at varying intervals 
after burial. In addition, 17 older brood pears were dug up in vari- 
ous pastures in Florida in April. Copulation apparently takes place 
a few hours after burial. Only one instance of this was observed; this 
was near Arcadia, Fla., on 27 March, 1957, 3:10 hrs after burial. 
The pair were unearthed in coitu next to the ball. On four other 
occasions the male was still present in the nest up to 21 :35 hrs after 
burial. On the other two occasions investigated, 21 and 22 hrs after 
burial, the male was gone, the female being alone with the as yet 
unmodified brood ball. It seems therefore that the male’s role, far 
more important than is usual among insects, is terminated at about 
this point. On all these occasions the brood ball had not been touched 
and was still spherical. Some time after the male departs the female 
must lay one egg into the ball and convert it into a pear. I have not 
observed this process and do not know when or how it occurs. In 
captivity, a ball made by a male in the manner described for brood 
balls, and rolled and buried with the female, was converted into a 
pear containing an egg in a period between four and ten days after it 
was buried. 
Once converted into a pear, the ball is abandoned by the female 
and left unattended in the soil. I collected 17 such unattended brood 
pears in several pastures at Welaka, Fla., in April, 1961. Those 
broken open were found to contain either a first-, second-, or third- 
instar larva. The brood pear and larva have been described else- 
where (Lindquist, 1935; Ritcher, 1945). Lindquist gives the 
development intervals for each instar and gives the total development 
