assailant. He pulls his hardest in the opposite direction to free
himself from those terrible fangs; he advances and recoils as he is
overpowered by or overpowers the assassin; and there his resistance
ends. The struggle lasts a quarter of an hour. Other beetles, passing
by, call a halt, and seem to say "My turn next!" Finally, redoubling his
efforts, the male frees himself and flies. If he had not succeeded in
escaping the ferocious female would undoubtedly have eviscerated him.

[Illustration: THE GOLDEN GARDENER: THE MATING SEASON OVER, THE MALES
ARE EVISCERATED BY THE FEMALES.]

A few days later I witness a similar scene, but this time the tragedy is
played to the end. Once more it is a female who seizes a male from
behind. With no other protest except his futile efforts to escape, the
victim is forced to submit. The skin finally yields; the wound
enlarges, and the viscera are removed and devoured by the matron, who
empties the carapace, her head buried in the body of her late companion.
The legs of the miserable victim tremble, announcing the end. The
murderess takes no notice; she continues to rummage as far as she can
reach for the narrowing of the thorax. Nothing is left but the closed
boat-shaped wing-covers and the fore parts of the body. The empty shell
is left lying on the scene of the tragedy.

In this way must have perished the beetles--always males--whose remains
I find in the cage from time to time; thus the survivors also will
perish. Between the middle of June and the 1st of August the inhabitants
of the cage, twenty-five in number at the outset, are reduced to five,
all of whom are females. All the males, to the number of twenty, have
disappeared, eviscerated and completely emptied. And by whom? Apparently
by the females.

That this is the case is attested in the first place by the two assaults
of which I was perchance the witness; on two occasions, in broad
daylight, I saw the female devouring the male, having opened the abdomen
under the wing-covers, or having at least attempted to do so. As for the
rest of the massacres, although direct observation was lacking, I had
one very valuable piece of evidence. As we have seen, the victim does
not retaliate, does not defend himself, but simply tries to escape by
pulling himself away.

If it were a matter of an ordinary fight, a conflict such as might arise
in the struggle for life, the creature attacked would obviously
retaliate, since he is perfectly