THE NECROPHORI. 
285 
sinks down, and they cover it up with the earth which had col- 
lected around the margin of the pit. These beetles are remarkable 
for the subtle sense of smell they possess. They fly swiftly, 
and are constantly hunting, with the aid of their acute sense of 
smelling, for the dead bodies of animals. In Russia, where dead 
bodies are often buried in shallow graves, the sexton beetles 
may be seen in hundreds in the churchyards. They dig a hole 
in the earth over the body, and take up their abode in the sub- 
stance of the corpse. They generally manage, by dint of hard 
work, to bury a small animal in twenty-four hours ; they then 
take up their dwelling in the body and feed upon it. The female 
speedily lays her eggs in the decomposing substances ; these 
soon become larvae, and feed, like their parents, upon the putrid 
matter until they acquire their full growth ; they then get out 
of the body and bury themselves in the earth to the depth of 
several feet, and remain there for three or four weeks, and undergo 
their metamorphoses. The larvae make a cell, in which they 
undergo their transformations. They are oblong in shape, are yel- 
lowish in colour, and they have leathery plates on the segments of 
the thorax and abdomen. They have very small antennae, power- 
ful mandibles, toothed like a saw, the jaws furnished with little 
points like those of a comb, and short legs, which enable them 
to dig. Although they live in darkness, they have two eyes, which 
are very distinct in young individuals, but which seem to become 
atrophied as the growth of the adults approaches its maturity. 
The engraving represents a small dead animal, which is be- 
ginning to disappear in consequence of the beetles having dug 
beneath it. The perfect insects are figured in different attitudes. 
On the left, low down, there is a larva, and above it a nymph. 
The carrion beetles of the genus Silpha — and which are com- 
monly called Shield Beetles in France, on account of the flattened 
shape of their body, and from the projection of the prothorax 
above the head — have ten joints in the antennae, and the last four 
pieces form its club-like end. Their elytra are margined off, as 
it were, and they have long and thin feet. These insects, which 
are rather small, run with great rapidity, and have very subtle 
powers of scent, for, like the Necrophori , they soon find out the 
dead body of any animal which may have been left on the 
