284 
TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
crossed by two broad bands of a light red tint. When the dead 
body of a mole or a field-mouse is left in the fields, the sexton 
beetles soon find it out, and begin to collect around in consider- 
able numbers. They are not going to eat the corpse, but they 
intend to lay their eggs in it. If the body is allowed to remain 
exposed to the air, it will dry up, or be eaten by other animals, 
THE METAMORPHOSES OF THE SEXTON BEETLE (NecrOphortlS vespillo). 
so that if any larvae were therein they would be destroyed, or they 
would perish for want of food. But the sextons have an instinct 
which prevents their young from being exposed to such dangers, 
and they set to work and bury the body, so that their larvae can 
nourish themselves upon it without being disturbed. They hollow 
out the ground beneath the body, and make a tolerably deep hole 
by throwing out the soil with their large legs ; then the animal 
