he homes of as many larvae. For each of these the provisions consist
of a parcel of Cow-dung, about an inch deep. The material is carefully
packed and fills the bottom of the cavity, just as a soft paste would
do when pressed down in a mould. Until now the work is similar to that
of the Bison Onitis; but the resemblance goes no farther and is
replaced by profound and curious differences, having no connection
with what the Dung-beetles of our own parts show us.

As we know, our sausage-makers, Onites and Geotrupes alike, place the
egg at the lower end of their cylinder, in a cell contrived in the
very midst of the mass of foodstuffs. Their rival in the pampas adopts
a diametrically opposite method: she places the egg above the
victuals, at the upper end of the sausage. In order to feed, the grub
does not have to work upwards; on the contrary, it works downwards.

More remarkable still: the egg does not lie immediately on top of the
provisions; it is installed in a clay chamber with a wall about
one-twelfth of an inch in thickness. This wall forms an
hermetically-sealed lid, curves into a cup and then rises and bends
over to make a vaulted ceiling.

The germ is thus enclosed in a mineral box, having no connection with
the provision-store, which is kept strictly shut. The newborn grub
must employ the first efforts of its teeth to break the seals, to cut
through the clay floor and to make a trap-door which will take it to
the underlying cake.

A rough beginning for the feeble mandible, even though the material to
be bored through is a fine clay. Other grubs bite at once into a soft
bread which surrounds them on every side; this one, on leaving the
egg, has to make a breach in a wall before taking nourishment.

Of what use are these obstacles? I do not doubt that they have their
purpose. If the grub is born at the bottom of a closed pot, if it has
to chew through brick to reach the larder, I feel sure that certain
conditions of its well-being demand this. But what conditions? To
become acquainted with them would call for an examination on the spot;
and all the data that I possess are a few nests, lifeless things very
difficult to interrogate. However, it is possible to catch a glimpse
of one or two points.

The Gromphas' burrow is shallow; those little cylinders, her loaves,
are greatly exposed to drought. Over there, as here, the drying up of
the victuals constitutes a mortal danger. To avert this peril, by far
the m