oeurs des Meloides," _Ann. Sc.
Nat._, iv. Serie, t. 7, 1857, p. 299; also "Nouvelles
observations sur l'hypermetamorphose et les Moeurs des
Meloides," _ibid._, t. 9, 1858, p. 265.

[Illustration: FIG. 16.]

_Carcasses of animals stored up._--These insects lay up for their
offspring stores manufactured by themselves or by others. The class we
are now about to consider makes provision of animals either dead or in
a torpid condition, with more or less art and more or less sure
instinct. Most people have seen the _Necrophorus_ or Burying Beetle
working in fields or gardens. These are large Coleoptera who feed on
abandoned carrion; everything is good to them--bodies of small
mammals, birds, or frogs; they are very easy to please, and as long as
the beast is dead that is all they require. When they have found such
remains, and consider only how to satisfy their hunger, they do not
take much trouble, and gnaw the prey on the spot where they have found
it. They are not alone at the feast, and in spite of their diligence
numerous rivals come up to dispute it; it is necessary to share with a
great number of noisy and voracious flies and insects. In the adult
state they come out well from this competition; but as good parents
they wish to save their larvae from it, as in a feeble condition these
might suffer severely. They desire to lay up a carcass for their young
alone, and with this object they bury it in the earth. The eggs also
which will thus develop in the soil have more chance of escaping
destruction by various insectivorous animals. If these diggers find a
rat (Fig. 16) or a dead bird, three or four unite their efforts, glide
beneath it, and dig with immense activity, kicking away with their
hind legs the earth withdrawn from the hole. They do not pause, and
their work soon perceptibly advances. The rat gradually sinks in the
pit as it grows deeper. When they have the good fortune to find the
earth soft they can sink the prey in less than two hours to a depth of
thirty centimetres. At this level they stop, and throw back into the
hole the earth they have dug out, carefully smoothing the hillock
which covers the grave. Thus stored up, the carcass is ready to
receive the _Necrophorus_ eggs. The females enter the soil and lay on
the buried mammal; then they retire, satisfied to leave their little
ones, when they appear, face to face with such abundant nourishment.
When they emerge from the envelope