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Ne« York 14609 USA (716) 482 - OJOO - Phone (716) 288 - 5989 - Fox iJ. .MP A^ C/9 Co %JJ1V^ ^■^^rari''-' '^' ^L^iTl!-:^;**??^^^.?^'! i^^m^. .-jff^^ji^ '^mj mEL : THE SACRED BEETLE AND OTHERS 'im ( BOOKS BV J. HKNRI FABRE THE LIFE OF THE SPIDER THE LIFE OF THE FLY THE MASON-BEES BRAMBLE-BEES AND OTHERS THE HUNTING WASPS THE LIFE OF THE CATERPILLAR THE LIFE OF THE GRASSHOPPER THE SACRED BEETLE AND OTHERS THE SACRED BEETLE AND OTHERS BY J. HENRI FARRE translated by All nder Teixeira de Mattos fblll .. of thk zoological sociktv op london WITH A PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR TORONTO McClelland, goodchild & stewart. limited 1918 ^^^. .v^c-: Copyright, 1918 By dodd, mead and company, Ino. PKilvfLU Ii\ L', i>. A. McMASIER UNIVERSITY PBRARX •^^/^m-i AUTHOR'S PREFACE In the building of the nest, the family safeguard, we see the highest manifestation of the 1 acuities of instinct. That clever architect, the bird, teaches us as much; and the msect, with its still more diverse talents, repeats the lesson, telling us that maternity IS the supreme inspirer of instinct. En- trusted with the preservation of the species, which is of more importance than the preser- vation of individuals, maternity awakens in the drowsiest intelligence marvellous gleams of foresight; it is the thrice sacred hearth where are kindled those mysterious psychic ^res which will suddenly burst into flame and dazzle us with their semblance of infallible reason. The more maternity asserts itself, the higher does instinct ascend. In this respect no creatures are more de- serving of our attention than the Hy- menoptera, upon whom the cares of ma- ternity devolve in their fulness. All these favourites of instinct prepare board and lodging for their offspring. They become master-craftsmen in a host of trades for the IssSF^^ngiFf Author's Preface sake of a family which their faceted eyes will never behold, but which is nevertheless no stranger to the mother's powers of foresight. One turns cotton-spinner and produces cot- ton-wool bottles; a.iother sets up as a basket- maker and weaves hampers out of bits of leaves; a third becomes a mason and builds rooms of cement and domes of road-metal; a fourth opens pottery-works, where clay is kneaded into shapely vases and rounded pots; yet another goes in for mining and digs mysterious underground chambers in the warm, moist earth. A thousand trades similar to ours and often even unknown to our industrial system enter into the preparation of the abode. Next comes the provisions for the expected nurselings : piles of honey, loaves of pollen, stores of game, preserved by a cunning paralysing-process. In such works as these, having the future of the family^ for their sole object, the highest manifestations of instinct are displayed under the stimulus of maternity. So far as the rest of the insect race is con- cerned, the mother's cares are generally most summary. In the majority of cases, all that is done is to lay the eggs in a favourable spot, where the larva, at its own risk and peril, can find bed and breakfast. With such vi i l»£.^':%»J^:v^f^^yQ^fI^iem»:r«^ I i t ! Author's Preface rustic ideas- upon the upbringing of the off- spring, talents are superfluous. Lycurgus banished the arts from his republic on the ground that they were enervating. In like manner the higher inspirations of instinct have no home among insects reared in the ijpartan fashion. The mother scorns the sweet task of the nurse; and the psychic prerogatives, which are the best of all, diminish and disappear, so true is it that, with animals as with ourselves, the family is a source of perfection. While the Hymenoptercn, so extremely thoughtful of her progeny, fills us with wonder, the others, which abandon theirs to the accidents of good luck or bad, must seem to us, by comparison, of little interest. 1 hese others form almost the whole of the entomologicJ race; at least, among the tauna of our country-sides, there is, to my knowledge, only one other example of insects preparing board and lodging for their family, as do the gatherers of honey and the buriers of well-filled aame-bags. And, strange to say, these insects vying in maternal solicitude with the flower-despoi- ling tribe of Bees are none other than the Dung-beetles, the dealers In ordure, the scavengers of the cattle-fouled meadows. vii Author's Preface We must pass from the scented blossoms of our flower-beds to the Mule-dung of our high-roads to find a second instance of de- voted mothers and lofty instincts. Nature abounds in these antitheses. What are our ugliness or beauty, our cleanliness or dirt to her? Out of filth, she creates the flower; from a little manure, she extracts the thrice- blessed grain of wheat. ^ Notwithstanding their disgusting occupa- tion, the Dung-beetles are of a very respect- able standing. Their size, which is generally imposing; their severe and immaculately glossy attire; their portly bodies, thickset and compact; the quaint ornamentation of brow or thorax, all combined makes them cut an excellent figure in the collector's boxes, especially when to our home species, oftenest of an ebon black, we add a few tropical varieties a-ghtter with gleams of gold and Washes of burnished copper. They are the sedulous attendants of our herds, for which reason several of them are faintly redolent of benzoic acid, the aromatic of the Sheepfolds. Their pastoral habits have impressed the nomenclators, too often alas, careless of euphony, who this time have changed their tune and headed their descrip- tions with such names as Mellbceus, Tityrus, viii ismm^ Author's Preface Amyntas, Corydon, xMopsus and Alexis. We find here the whole scries of bucolic ap- pellations made famous by the poets of antiquity. Virgil's eclogues have lent their vocabulary for the Dung-beetles' glorifica- tion. We should have to go back to the butterflies with their daintv graces to find an equally poetic nomenclature. In their case the epic names of the Iliad ring out, borrowed from the camps of Greek and irojan, and perhaps too magnificently bellicose for those peaceable winded flowers whose habits in no wise recall the martial deeds of an Ajax or an Achilles. Much better-imagined is the bucolic title given to the Dung-beetles; it tells us the insect's chief characteristic, its predilection for pasture- lands. *^ The dung-manipulators have as head of their line the Sacred Beetle or Scarab, whose strange behaviour had already attracted the attention of the fellah in the valley of the Nile, some thousand years before the Christian era. As he watered his patch of onions in the spring, the Eg- ^^ian peasant would see from time to time at black in- sect pass close by, hurriedly tru.dling a ball ot Camel-dung backwards. He would watch the queer rolling thing in amazement, even ix Author's Preface as^the Provencal peasant watches it to this fin^V"' (?'!' ^° ^^ surprised when he first mmm vio-oiir Tk '^^'""g 't along with such In the days of the Rameses anH Ti,„.i. superstition had somethin" „ ^ly ^"1"; matter; men saw in th? t.iv u '"^ image of the wnrM J ' -8 'P''"' "" revolution- and the s'"'"!'"''"'"? ''= '^'''y honours:";, ;l '^,; owfanm '"7 rXs'"^ ^-^^^^ BeetHf Xo^Jn^ cuHor;y-rer£"rE",f;:r.*d ?-^-oo^tettti5Er'-""l° he ntends 'hall / , "^^ ^^'" ^^hich hisfa4? Not;M^T^''™'''^'^- tative works perpetuate thi """" '"""'"■ where he is concerned ^''°''"' '""" Author's Preface rolls h,s ball from east to west, the direction |n whjch the world turns. He next buries ;er?o"d"?"a'";' '"' '"^I'^-^'e''' ''^v' " period of a lunary revolution^ This four progeny. On the twenty-ninth day, which the msect knows to be that of the con u ction of the sun and moon and of the birth of he worW, he goes back to his buried ball ; he d g! ;^ up, opens ,t and throws it into the N f Sr d"Z •" '^' '''^'- '""""^io" -he frilhrb'air """ '' '""'' '" "--8= Let us not laugh overmuch at these Pharaon,c stories: they contain a modicu^ astrology. Moreover, a good deal of the aught,., wouIH. recoil upon our own science for the fundametal error of regarding as the Scarab's cradle the ball which Tve see ro 1 „^ across the elds still lingers in our textS All he authors who write about the Sacred Beetle repeat ,t,- the trad' on Las come down ^ us mtact from the fa off days when the irramids were built. It is a good thing from time to time to w,e d the hatchet in the overgrown thi ket of tradition; ,t ,s well to shake off the yoke xi ^71 ^^m^tm^mmm^^m^ Author's Preface of accepted Ideas. It is possible that c eansed o .ts obscuring dross, truth may aJ last shine forth resplendent, far greater and more wonderful than the things^ which wf Z7 ''"f i- i ^''' ^°"^^^''"" harbourld these rash doubts; and I have no reason to regret ,t notably in the case of the Scarab 1 o-day r know the sacred pill-roller's story thoroughly; and the reader shall see how much more marvellous it is than the tales handed dowr to us by the old Egyptians. The early chapters of my investigations nrn° ?'• ""T"' °^ '"^^'"^^ ' have already proved, m the most categorical fashion, that the round pellets rolled hither and thither along the ground by the insect do not and in' deed cannot contain germs. They are not hab,tat,ons for the egg and the grub, they are provisions which the Sacred Beetle hur- order Tu^'" ^u""" '^' ""'^^'^^S crowd in order to bury them and consume them at leisure m a subterranean dining-room iN early forty years have elapsed since I used eagerly to collect the materials to sup- fir:t?l^";haU"'o?\^',.^^ P,77h7 ifuT'- '°™'""« ^^^ Xt^ues. The remammc, X.. \ Souvenirs enfomo o- peared, in the owS in V^ "v ""/'l*^ ^'"''^ ^""^ ^P- volume the above wa, written' .^"J' '^V ^°\f^' vvhich Note. ^""^" ^^ ' preface.— Translator's xn '^^m^iwMmrm;::, •Ki^^wmz Author's Preface port my iconoclastic assertions, on the Pla- teau des Angles, near Avignon; and nothing has happened to invahdate my statements; tar from ,t: everything has corroborated them. The mco.:testable proof came at last ^vhen I obtamed the Scarab's nest, a genuine nest this time, gathered in such quantities as 1 wished and m some cases even shaped be- tore my eyes. I have described my former vain attempts to find the larva's abode; I hav described the pitiful failure of my efforts at rearing under covc^r; and perhaps the reader com- miserated my woes when he saw me on the outskirts of the town stealthily anc' in- gloriously gathering in a paper bag the aonation dropped by a passing Mule for my charges. Certainly, as things were, my task was no easy one. My boarders, who were great consumers, or more correctly speaking great wasters, used to beguile the tedium of captivity by indulging in art for art's sake in the glad sunshine. Pill followed on pill, all beautifully rounded, to be abandoned un- used after a few exercises in rolling. The heap of provisions, which I had so painfully acquired in the friendly shadow of the gloam' ing, w^s squandered with disheartening rapidity; and there came a time when the xiii Author's Preface daily bread failed. Moreover, the stringy manna failing frcm the Horse and the Mule IS hardly suited to the mother's work, as I learnt afterwards. Something more homo- geneous, more plastic is needed; and this only the Sheep's somewhat laxer bowels are able to supply. In short, though my earlier studies taught me all about the Scarab's public mainers, for several reasons they told me noth.ng of his private habits. The r.est-building pro- blem remained as obscure as ever. Its solu- tion demands a good deal more than the straitened resources of a tovyn and the scientific equipment of a laboratory. It re- quires prolonged residence in the country; it requires the proximity of flocks and he-ds in the bright sunshine. Given these conditions, success is assured, provided that one have zeal and perseverance; and these conditions I find to perfection in my quiet village. Provisions, my great difficulty in the old days, are now to be had for the asking. Close to my house, Mules pass along the high-road, on their way to the fields and back again; morning and evening. Hocks of Sheep go by, making for the pasture or the fold; not five yards from my door, my neighbour's Goat is tethered: I can hear her xiv Author's Preface bleating as she nibbles away at her ring of grass. Moreover, should lood be scarce in my immediate vicinity, there are always youthful purveyors who, lured bv visions of lollipops, arc ready to scour the country to collect victuals for my Beetles. I hey arrive, not one but a dozen, bringing their contributions in the queerest of re- ceptacles. In this novel procession of gift- bearers, any concave thing that ch.-nccs to be handy is employed: the crinvn of ... old hat, a broken tile, a bit of stove-pipe, the bottom of a spmning-top, a fragment of a basket, an old shoe hardened into a sort of boat, at a pinch the collector's own cap. " It's prime stu.; this time," their shining eyes seem to proclaim. "It's something extra special." The goods are duly approved and paid for on the spot, as agreed. To close the transaction in a fitting manner, I take the victuallers to the cages and show them the Beetle rolling his pill. They gaze in wonder at the funny crea'ure that looks as if it were playing with its ball; they laugh at its tumbles and scream with delight at its clumsy struggles when it comes to grief and lies on Its back kicking. A charming sight, especially when the lollipops bulging in the XV Author's Preface youngsters' cheeks are just beginning to melt deliciously. Thus the zeal of my little collaborators is kept alive. There is no fear of my boarders starving: their larder will be lavishly supplied. Who are these boarders? Well, first and foremost the Sacred Beetle, the chief subject of my present investigations. Serignan's long screen of hills might well mark his extreme northern boundary. Here ends the Mediterranean flora, whose last ligneous re- presentatix.s are the arboraceous heather and the arbutus-tree; and here, in all probability, the mighty pill-maker, a passionate lover of the sun, terminates Ms arctic explorations. He abounds on the ho«- si- 2s facing the south and in the n.i-row belt of plain sheltered by that powerful reflector. Ac- cording to all appearances, the elegant Gallic Bolboceras and the stalwart Spanish Copris likevyise stop at this line: for both are as sensitive to cold as he. To these curious Dung-beetles, whose private habits arc so little known, let us add the Gymnopleuri, the Minotaur, the Geotrupes, the Onthophagi. They are all welcomed in my cages, for all, I am convinced beforehand, have surprises in store for us in the details of their under- ground business. xvi Author's Preface My cages have a capacity of about a cubic yard. Except for the front, which is of wire gau/.e, the whole is made of wood. This keeps out any excessive rain, the efiiect of which wou) I be to turn the layer of earth in my open-air appliances into mud. Over- great moisture wouK .)c fatal to the priso- ners, who cannot, in their straitened artificial demesne, act as they do when at liberty and prolong their digging indefinitely un- til they come upon a medium suitable to their operations. They want soil which Is porous ami not too dry, though in no danger of ever becoming muddy. The earth in the cages therefore is of a sandy character and, after being sifted, is slightly moistened and flattened down just enough to prevent any landslips in the future galleries. Its depth is barely ten or eleven inches, which is in- sufficient in certain cases; but those of the Inmate, who h-ve a fancy for deep galleries, like the Geotru^es for instances, are well able to make up horizontally for what is denied them perpendicularly. The trellised front has a south aspect and allows the sun's rays to penetrate right into the dwelling. The opposite side, which faces north, consists of two shutters one above the other. They are movable and xvii ■**'j».''rf»» ""s^- 3^y'.;i«*?^«*«F Author's Preface are kept in place by hooks or bolts. The op one opens for food to be distributed and door for ev-eryday use. It is also the en- succoed m bagg.ng. The bottom shutter wh.ch keeps the layer of earth in position s opened only on great occasions, ,!^h n we V ant to surpnse the insect in its home life and to ascertam the condition of the progress the hoard, wh.ch is on hinges, falls- and a vertical section of the soil i la J 'bare pving us an excellent opportunity of studvinff the Dung-beetles' work Our evnminJ^ ■s made with the point of a kn fe a„d "" be conducted with the utmost care In h 3 way we get with precision and without dlffi culty industrial details which could not aw t he_obta,ned by laborious digging in"The '^Jn . ^■"•"th<;less, out-doo' investigations are ndispensable and often yield far more ■mportant results than anything deri ■ d ft-om home rear nfT- fr>r- t-u l "*'^*Jrrom beetles are i:fdiffett ^t^^^Lj^^X "h : ara;:"o''f ''"' ™"'-"^ "«-■• menf nr „ i """"^ ""^us tempera, ment or perhaps more cautious, distrus? my xviii ^ I I Author's Preface boarded palaces and are extremely reluctant to surrender their secrets. It is only once in a way that they fall victims to my assiduous wooing. Besides, if my mena- gerie IS fo be run properly, I must know some- thing of what is happening outside, were it only to find out the right time of year for my various projects. It is absolutely essen- tial therefore that our study of the insect in captivity should be amply supplemented by observations of its life and habits in the wild state. Here an assistant would be very useful to me, some one with leisure, with a seeing eye and a simple heart, whose curiosity would be as unaffected as my own. This helper I have: such an one indeed as I have never had before or since. He is a young shep- herd, a friend of the family. He has read a little and has a keen desire for know- ledge so he is not frightened by the terms bcarabcTus, Geotrupes, Copris or Ontho- phagus when I name the insects which he has dug up the day before and kept for me in a box. ^ At early dawn in the dog-days, when my insects are busy with their nest-building, you may see him in the meadows. When night tails and the heat begins to lessen, he is still xix 11 i vaa^T'sm Author's Preface there; and all day long, till far into the night, he passes to and fro among the pill-rollers, who are attracted from every quarter by the reek of the victuals strewn by his Sheep. VV ell-posted m the various points of my entomological problems, he watches events and keeps me informed. He awaits his op- portunity; he inspects the grass. With his knife he lays bare the subterranean cell which IS betrayed by its little moun ' of earth; he scrapes, digs and finds; and it all con- stitutes a glorious ch re from his vague pastoral musings. Ah, what splendid mornings we spend to- gether, in the cool of the day, seeking the nest of the Scarab or the Copris ! Old Sul- tan is there, seated on some knoll or other and keeping an autocratic eye upon the fleecy rabble. Nothing, not even the crust which a friend holds out to him, distracts his attention from his exalted functions. Certainly he is not much to look at, with his tangled black coat, soiled with the thousands of seeds which have caught in it. He is not a handsome Dog, but what a lot of sense there is in his shaggy head, what a talent tor knowing exactly what is permitted and what forbidden, for perceiving the absence of some heedless one forgotten behind a dip XX Author's Preface think that he knew the number of Sheep con- fided to his care, his Sheep, though never a bone of them comes his way ! He has counted them from the top of his knoll. One is missing. Sultan rushes off. Here he comes bringing the straggler back to the flock! Lieyer Dog I admire your skill in arith- mei.c, though I fail to understand how your crude brain ever acquired it. Yes, old fellow, we can rely on you ; the two of us, your master and I, can hunt the Dung-beetle at our ease and disappear in the copsevvood- not one of your charges will go astray, not one Will nibble at the neighbouring vines It was in this way that I worked, at early morn, before the sun grew too hot, in partnership with the young shepherd and our common fnend Sultan, though at times I was alone myself sole pastor of the seventy bleat- ing Sheep. And so the materials were ga- thered for this history of the Sacred Beetle and his rivals. 5 1 HI xxi >-;fiT a ^mw ''^'>> TRANSLATOR'S NOTE tammg Fabre s essays on Beetles, ehe order W Other BeetlTThell , u'';^''" Tu tS „'bv"'f' "■".'", '"""^J'"^ -ccessron out turn by turn with books upo„ i„ sects; for the Souvenirs elZoloa. "" taken t'^K^T "."^'>' ^" '■''i^ ™=' Sal » Of'th? -f '" ['■°'" ''^'"e exhausted. Dre;;n. .'^ '"" '^''''•""^ *=' """ke up the iipiete or m a more or less abbreviated form, m various interesting illustrated mU ceanies published indepenlenti o? he cl f7ceJ,r- u ^"' "^ ""= Author's Pre- -<1 be7old*n w1 t;tJ" ^"^'fy Messrs. MacillanYco'ttTuJhr':? J>^^^.«o,«& .l/„„-. Similarly, the Lxt 1 xxni Translator's Note three chapters on the Sacred Beetle, the two treating of the Spanish Copris, the chapter on the Onthophagi and Oniticelli and the first two chapters on the Geotrupes form part of The Life and Love of the Insect, translated by myself for Messrs. Adam and Charles Black and published in America by the Mac- millan Co. Lastly, The Sisyphus: the In- stinct of Paternity occurs in Mr. Fisher Un- wm's Social Life in the Insect U^orld, trans- lated by Mr. Bernard Miall and published in America by the Century Co. These chap- ters are all included in the Collected Edition by arrangement with the publishers named. It but remains for me (I regret to say, for the last time) to express my thanks to Miss .-ranees Rodwell, my very capable assistant:, who has done so much to assist me in preparing this and most of the previous volumes. Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. CHELSEA, 10 September, 191 8. l-i Jvr % 111 ii i XXIV CONTENTS author's preface ...... '**v^ translator's note . w;;; CHAPTER * * * ^'" 1 THE SACRED BEETLE . . . i H THE SACRED BEETLE IN CAPTIV- '^^ 41 m THE SACRED BEETLE: THE BALL 6o IV THE SACRED BEETLE: THE PEAR 8o V THE SACRED BEETLE: THE MOD- ELLING lOr VI THE SACRED BEETLE: THE LARVA II9 VII THE SACRED BEETLE: THE NVMPH; THE RELEASE . . 138 VIII THE BROAD-NECKED SCARAB; THE GYMNOPLEURI . . .'162 IX THE SPANISH COPRIS : THE LAY- ING OF THE EGGS . . .184 X THE SPANISH COPRIS: THE HAB- ITS OF THE MOTHER . . . 215 XI ONTHOPHAGI AND ONITICELI I . 248 Contents CHAPTER p^gg XH THE GEOTRUPES: THE PUBLIC HEALTH 272 Xni THE GEOTRUPES: NEST-BUILDING 292 XIV THE GEOTRUPES: THE LARVA . 317 XV THE SISYPHUS : THE INSTINCT OF PATERNITY 336 XVI THF LUNARY COPRIS; THE BISON OTITIS 355 XVII THE BULL ONTHOPHAGUS: THE CELL ....... 3'7y XVIII THE BULL ONTHOPHAGUS: THE LARVA; THE NYMPH . . . 402 tNDEX 421 5i CHAPTER I THE SACRED BEETLE J T happened like this. There were five or SIX of us : myself, the oldest, officially their master but even more their friend and com- rade; they, lads with warm hearts and ioyous imaginations, overflowing with that youthful vitality which makes us so enthusiastic and so eager for knowledge. We started off one morning down a path fringed with dwarf elder and hawthorn, whose clustering blos- soms were already a paradise for the Rose- chafer ecstatically drinking in their bitter perfumes. We talked as we went. We were going to see whether the Sacred Beetle had yet made his appearance on the sandy plateau of Les Angles,^ whether he was roll- 1.- T that pellet of dung in which ancient Egypt beneld an image of the world; we were going to find out whether the stream at the foot of the hill was not hiding under its mantle of duckweed young Newts with gills like tiny \A village in the department of the Card, facine AviRnon.— ^ ut/ior's Note. "cing I The Sacred Beetle and Others branches of coral; whether that pretty little fish of our rivulets, the Stickleback, had donned his wedding scarf of purple and blue; whether the newly arrived Swallow was skim- ming the meadows on pointed wing, chasing the Crancflics, who scatter their eggs as they c'ance through the air; if the Eyed Lizard was sunning his blue-speckled body on the threshold of a burrow dug in the sandstone; If the Laughing Gull, travelling from the sea in the wake of the legions of fish that ascend the Khone to mdt in its waters, was hovering in his hundreds over the river, ever and anon uttering his cry so like a maniac's laughter; if . . . but that will do. To be brief, let us say that, like good simple folk who find plea- sure in all living things we were off to spend a morning at the most wonderful of festivals, life s springtime awakening. Our expectations were fulfilled. The Stickleback was dressed in his best: his scales w-ould have paled the lustre of silver; his throat was flashing with the brightest ver- milion. On the approach of the great black Horse-leech, the spines on his back and sides started up, as though worked bv a spring. In the face of this resolute attitude, the bandit turns tail and slips ignominiously down among the water-weeds. The placid mollusc The Sacred Beetle W^.' "■ ^ m""'^"' ^'"^"^^' ♦''nd other Water-sna.ls - were sucking in the air on the surface of the water. TheMydrophilus and her h,j,o,3 ,3 ^^^^^ y^. P s and as ^hcv'n "'"/ ^^-"' --"«-« ^ neck or two seem?7 r^- ^^' ^^"^'^^ ^'•^' ^ ^'d not vhTn Z7-" ""'"' '^- ^^"^ '^'^ "^ I^-^v-e the to hJ^^? T ''''u" '"^ ^''''"^^^■•- "P the Muff to the plateau above us. L'n there Shceo are grax.n^ and Horses being excrci'sed f .? he app,,,h,ng races, while all are distribu' tmg manna to the enraptured Dung-bcetles ilcre are the scavengers at work, the Beetles whose proud mission it is to purge the O.I oMts fdth. One would never we'rv of adm.nng the variety of tools wherewith they are supplied, whether for shifting, cutting un and shap.ng the stercoral matter or Wex^ cavating deep burrows in which they Jdl seclude themselves with their booty ^ T equipment resembles a technical museum ente" T^ ,^'^^'"?--P'— t is re ,7- frZlu '"^'"^"/hmgs that seem copied from those appertaming to human industry ^Tiht w.n '" "'■'^'"'' ' 'yP' ^hat they ventionl ""^^ " " "^'"''^ ^^^ -- -- The Spanish Copris carries on his fore- head a powerful pointed horn, curved bark- 3 I 1 ! f The Sacred Beetle and Others wards, like the long blade of a mattock. In addition to a similar horn, the Lunary Copris has two strong spikes curved like a plough- share, springing from the thorax, and also, between the two, a jagged protuberance which docs duty as a wide rake. Bubas buballs and B. bison, both exclusively Mediterranean species, have their forehead armed with two stout diverging horns, be- tween which juts a horizontal dagger, sup- plied by the corselet. Minotaiirus typha'tis carries on the front of his thorax three ploughshares, which stick straight out, parallel to one another, the side ones longer than the middle one. The Bull Onthapha- gus has as his tool two long curved pieces that remind us of the horns of a Bull; the Cow OnthaphntTus, on the other hand, has a two-pronged lork standing erect on his flat head. Even the poorest have, either on their head or on their corselet, hard knobs that make implements which the patient in- sect can turn to good use, notwithstanding their bluncness. All are supplied with a shovel, that is to say, they have a wide, flat head with a sharp edge; all use a rake, that is to say, they collect materials with their toothed fore-legs. As some sort of compensation for their 4 a The Sacred Beetle unsavoury task, several of them give out * powerful scent of musk, while thdrbdles shme hke polished metal. The S" Deneath the Stercoraelous Geotrupes has a belly of amethystine violet. But Kcnerallv he.r colourmg is black. The Dunrbee les m gorgeous raiment, those veritable Jivn^ gems, belong to the trooics I 'n? r ^ S?:rtii"a '-is Cow" • ofT'^ '"^- S^^g^'nl'ia bof«"of ".opres of a metallic red, rich a« ,h,. c copper and ruby-bright. Th D gb ,i: of our chmes cannot flaunt such Jewell J^ but .they are no less remarkable Z'l^r inc from /h. ') '' adventurers hurry, ing from the four corners of the earth dis- |There''i:thefh::d^:;:r;r:„^d-tff cl;TeriVs'':p4ro^f t •''"'-'" v° There are son,:M:!' bl ' „TeT" n" ,V and scrape the surface; there ar others th d.g themselves galleries in the thick of the heap, ,n search of choice veins; some work s K-'l El' I ^mm^i^^^i:^^:^^^^ jW*'"' The Sacred Beetle and Others the lower stratum and bury their spoil with- out delay in the ground just below; others again, the smallest, keep on one side and crumble a morsel that has slipped their way during the mighty excavations of their more powerful fellows. Some, newcomers and doubtles the hungriest, consume their meal on the spot; but the greater number dream of accumulating stocks that will allow them to spend long days in affluence, down in some safe retreat. A nice, fresh patch of dung is not found just when you want it, in the barren plains overgrown with thyme ; a wind- fall of this sort is as mama from the sky only fortune's favourites receive so fair a portion. Wherefore the riches of to-day are prudently hoarded for the morrow. The stercoraceous scent has carried the glad tidings half a mile around; and all have hastened up to get a store of provisions. A few laggards are still arriving, on the wing or on foot. Who is this that comes trotting towards the heap, fearing lest he reach it too late? His long legs nwe with awkward jerks, as though driven by some mechanism within his belly; his little red antennae unfurl their fan, a sign of anxious greed. He is coming, he has come, not without sending a few 6 The Sacred Beetle banqueters sprawling. It is the Sacred i'eetle, clad all in black, the biggest and most famous of our Dung-beetles. Behold him at table, beside his fellow-guests, each of whom is giving the last touches to his ball with the flat of his broad fore-legs or else en- riching it with yet one more layer before re- tiring to enjoy the fruit of his labours in peace. Let us follow the construction of the famous ball in all its phases. The clypcus, or shield, that is, the edge of the broad, flat head, is notched with six an- gular teeth arranged in a semicircle. This constitutes the tool for digging and cutting up, the rake that lifts and casts aside the un- nutritious vegetable fibres, goes for some- thing better, scrapes and collects it. A choice is thus made, for these connoisseurs differentiate between one thing and another, making a rough selection when the Beetle is occupied with his own provender, but an ex- tremely scrupulous one when it is a case of constructing the maternal ball, which has a central cavity in which the egg will hatch. Then every scrap of fibre is conscientiously rejected and only the stercoral quintessence is gathered as the material for building the in- ner layer of the cell. The young larva, on issuing from the egg, thus finds in the very '•^^^--^^f?l1 f ' I The Sacred Beetle and Others walls of its lodging a food of special delicaqr which strengthens its digestion and enables it afterwards to attack the coarse outer layers. Where his own needs are concerned, the Beetle is less particular and contents himself with a very general sorting. The notched shield then does its scooping and digging, its casting aside and scraping together more or less at random. The fore-legs play a mighty part in the work. They are flat, bow- shaped, supplied with powerful nervures and armed on the outside with five strong teeth. If a vigorous effort be needed to remove an obstacle or to force a way through the thickest part of the heap, the Dung-beetle makes use of his elbows, that is to say, he flings his toothed legs to right and left and clears a semicircular space with an energetic sweep. Room once made, a different kind of work is found for these same limbs: they collect armfuls of the stuff raked together by the shield and push it under the insect's belly, between the four hinder legs. These are formed for the turner's trade. They are long and slender, especially the last pair, slightly bowed and finished with a very sharp claw. They are at once recognized as compasses, capable of embracing a globu- 8 '-^ ■.^*i^^..\ JiMtii ^ The Sacred Beetle lar body in their curved branches and of verifying ar correcting its shape. Their function is, fact, to fashion the ball. Armful by armful, the material is heaped up under the belly, between the four legs, which, by a slight pressure, impart their own curve to it and give it a preliminary outhne. Then, every now and again, the rough-hewn pill is set spinning between the four branches of the doube pair of spherical compasses; it turns under the Dung-beetle's belly until it is rolled into a perfect ball. Should the sur- face layer lack plasticity and threaten to peel off, should some too-stringy part refuse to yield to the action of the lathe, the fore-legs touch up the faulty places; their broad paddles pat the ball to give consistency to the new layer and to work the recalcitrant bits into the mass. Under a hot sun, when time presses, one stands amazed at the turner's feverish activity. And so the work proceeds apace: what a moment ago was a tiny pellet is now a ball the size of a walnut; soon it will be the size of an apple. I have seen some gluttons manufacture a ball the size of a man's fist. This indeed means food in the larder for days to come ! The Beetle has his provisions. The 9 I fi r I ^ I ^ .1 ^ The Sacred Beetle and Others next thing is to withdraw from the fray and transport the victuals to a suitable place. Here the Scarab's most striking character- istics begin to show themselves. Straight- way he begins his journey; he clasps his sphere with his two long hind-legs, whose terminal claws, planted in the mass, serve as pivots; he obta'ns a purchase with the middle pair of legs; and, with his toothed fore-arms, pressing in turn upon the ground, to do duty as levers, he proceeds with his load, he him- self moving backvvards, body bent, head down and hind-quarters in the air. The rear legs, the principal factor in the me- chanism, are in continual movement back- wards and forwards, shifting the claws to change the axis of rotation, to keep the load balanced and to push it along by alternate thrusts to right and left. In this way, the ball finds itself touching the ground by turns with every point of its surface, a process which perfects Its shape and gives an even consistency to its outer layer by means of pressure uniformly distributed. And now to work with a will ! The thing moves, it begins to roll; we shall get there, though not without difficulty. Here is a first awkward place : the Beetle Is wending his way athwart a slope and the heavy mass tends 10 ■w . Mt I The Sacred Beetle to follow thf^ incline; the insect, however, for reasons best known to itself, prefers to cut across this natural road, a bold project which may be brought to naught by a false step or by a grain of sand which disturbs the balance of the load. . The false step is made • dovvn goes the ball to the bottom of the valley; and the insect, toppled over by the shock, IS lying on its back, kicking, "it is soon up agam and hastens to harness itself once more to its load. The machine works better than ever. But look out, you dunder- head. Im)Uow the dip of the valley: that will save labour and mishaps; the road is good and level; your ball will roll quite easily. Not a bit of it! The Beetle pre- pares once again to mount the slope that has already been his undoing. Perhaps it suits him to return to the heights. Against that 1 have nothing to say: the Scarab's judgment IS better than mine as to the advisability of keeping to lofty regions; he can see farther than I can in these matters. But at least take this path, which will lead vou up by a gentle incline ! Certainly not; Let him tind himself near some very steep slope, im- possible to climb, and that is the very path which the obstinate fellow will choose. INow begins a Sisyphean labour. The ball, II !■ il The Sacred Beetle and Othei-s I . g that enormous burden, is painfully hoisted, step by step, with infinite precautions, to a ceriain height, always backwards. We wonder by what miracle of statics a mass of this size can be kept upon the slope. Oh! An ill-advised movement frustrates all this toil: the ball rolls down, dragging the Beetle with it. Once more the heights are scaled and another fall is the sequel. The attempt is renewed, with greater skill this time at the difficult points; a wretched grass- root, the cause of the previous falls, is care- fully got over. We are almost there; but steady now, steady! It is a dangerous ascent and the merest trifle may yet ruin everything. For see, a leg slips on a smooth hit of gravel ! Down come ball and Beetle, all mixed up together. And the insect begins over again, with indefatigable obstinacy. Ten times, twenty times, he will attempt the hopeless ascent, until his persistence van- quishes all obstacles, or until, wisely recogni- zing the futility of his efforts, he adopts the level road. The Scarab does not always push his precious ball alone: sometimes he takes a partner; or, to be accurate, the partner takes him. This is the way in which things usu- 12 lis I i ,S Wt '^m.:,^. The SacreJ Beetle ally happen: once his ball is ready, a Dung- bee le issues from the crowd and leaves the workyard, pushing his prize backwards. A hardly begun, abruptly drops his work and runs to the moving ball, to lend a hand to the lucky owner, who seems to accept th° proffered a.d kindly. Henceforth the t w ; n h li: P'T^'^'P' ^'-^^h does his bes tto push the pellet to a place of safety. W s a ompact really concluded in the workvard n^Th uu °"f '"'"' ^"'^^'"g ^"d mould- ing the ball, was the other tapping rich veins hem"tV?h''^"^' ^'^'^^ "^^'--^ -d "j them to the common store ? I have never observed any such collaboration; I have with'hir" ^^^'^P-g-l'-^ie occupied sojy V th h.s own affairs in the works. The Ia.t-comer, therefore, has no acquired Can it then be a partnership between the Thrush; ' 7''^ '"^^"''"^ ''^^' "P h-- I thought .o for a time. The two Beetles b"l wi th":n °r/^''"'' P"^^'"^^ ^he hea^; ball with equal fervour, reminded me of a song which the hurdy-gurdies used To gr nd out some years ago: ^ 13 ::i! ^^ -Mil .i^hv^^JM. ^ ,:t. MWi-i-^.r" ^ The Sacred Beetle and Others Pour tnontcr notre menage, he las! comment ferons-nous? Toi devant ct moi derriere, nous pousserons le tonneau.^ The evidence of the scalpel compelled me to abandon my belief in this domestic idyll. There is no outward difference between the two sexes in the Scarabaei. I therefore dis- sected the pair of Dung-beetles engaged in trundling one and the same ball; and they very often proved to be of the same sex. Neither community of family nor com- munity of labour! Then what is the motive for this apparent partnership? It is purely and simply an attempt at robbery. The zealous fellow-worker, on the false plea of lending a helping hand, cherishes a plan to purloin the ball at the first opportunity. To make one's own ball at the heap means hard work and patience; to steal one ready- made, or at least to foist one's self as a guest, is a much easier matter. Should the owner's vigilance slacken, you can run away with his property; should you be too closely watched, you can sit down to table uninvited, plead- 1 " When you and I start housekeeping, alas, what shall we do? You in front and I behind, we'll shove the tub along!" 14 i^ The Sacred Beetle ing services rendered. It is " Heads I win, ta.ls you lose m these tactics, so that pillage s practised as one of the most lucrative of trades Some go to work craftily, in the way which [ have described: thl'v come to the aid of a comrade who has not the least Trli ^h^^"^ /^nd hide the most barefaced greed under the cloak of charitable assist- ance Others, bolder perhaps, more con- ^dent m th.ir strength, go straight to thei. goal and commit robbery with violence Scenes are constantly happening such as this: a Scarab goes off, peacefully, bv him- self, ro ling his ball, his lawful property acquired by conscientious work. Another comes Hying up I know not whence, drops down heavily folds his dingy v, ings under their cases and, with the back of his toothed tore-arms, knocks over the owner, who is powerless to ward off the attack in his awkward position, harnessed as he is to his property. While the victim struggles to his teet, the other perches himself atop the ball the best position from which to repel an assailant. With his fore-arms crossed over his breast, ready to hit back, he awaits fu^"u „ ^'^f. dispossessed one moves round the ball, seeking a favourable spot at which to make the assault; the usurper spins round 15 few T.-r I 1 l.( "'<■ it' 'k " ii : \ . fe ^ The Sacred Beetle and Others on the roof of the citadel, facing his opponent all the time. If the latter raise himsi-lt in order to scale the wall, the robber gives him a blow that stretches him on his back. Safe at the top of his fortress, the besieged Beetle could foil his adversary's attempts in- definitely if the latter did not change his tactics. He turns sapper so as to reduce the citadel with the garrison. The ball, shaken from below, totters and begins rolling, carry- ing with it the thieving Dung-beetle, who makes violent efforts to maintain his position on the top. This he succeeds in doing — though not InvariaLly — thanks to hurried gymnastic feats which land him higher on the ball and make up for the ground which he loses by its rotation. Should a false move- ment bring him to earth, the ch:"-^"s become equal and the struggle turns into u .v'resding- match. Robber and robbed grapple with each other, breast to breast. Their legs lock and unlock, their joints intertwine, their horny armour clashes and grates with the rasping sound of metal under the file. Then the one who succeeds in throwing his opponent and releasing himself scrambles to the top of the ball and there takes up his position. The siege is renewed, now by the robber, now by the robbed, as the chances of the hand-to-hand 16 ■kK '.■■:y -^1 1 9^ 5B? •A-iL-ll^ The Sacred Beetle conflict may decree. The former, a brawny desperado, no novice at the game, olten has the best of the light. 'I'hen, after two or three unsuccessful attempts, the defeated Beetle wearies and returns philosophically to the heap, to make himself a new pellet. As for the other, with all fear of a surprise attack at an end, he harnesses himself to the con(]uered ball and pushes it whither he pleases. I have sometimes seen a third thief appear upon the scene and rob the robber. Nor can I honestly say that I was sorry. I ask myself in vain what Proudhon ^ introduced into Scaraba-an morality the da- ring paradox that " property means plunder," or what diplomatist taught ' • Dung-beetle the savage maxim that " m.^ht is right." I have no data that would enable me to trace the o-igin of these spoliations, which have become a custom, of this abuse of strength to capture a lump of ordure. All that I can say is that theft is a general practice among the Scarabs. These dung-rollers rob one another with a calm effrontery which, to my knowledge, is without a parallel. I leave it to future observers to elucidate this curious 1 Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865), the French socialist, author of Qu'est-ce que la pr-)pr'ute? etc.— Trans- lator's Sotr. 17 ,V- I ■-. .Wj.MamL^^w-3,^. The Sacred Beetle and Others problem in animal psycholo^ry and I go back to the two partners rolling their ball in con- cert. Hut first let me dispel a current error in the text-books. 1 find in M. £mile Blanchard's * magniticent work, Metamorphoses, mdurs et instincts ties insect cs, the following pas- sage : " Sometimes our insect is stopped by an in- surmountable obstacle; the ball has fallen into a hole. At such moments the Atcuchus '^ gives evidence of a really astonishing grasp of the situation as well as of a system of ready communication between individuals of the same species which is even more remark- able. Recognizing the impossibility of coax- ing the ball out of the hole, the Ateuchus seems to abandon it and Hies away. If you are sufficiently endowed with that great and noble virtue called patience, stay by the for- saken ball: after a while, the Ateuchus will return to the same spot and will not return alone; he will be accompanied by two, three, four or five companions, who will all alight at 'he place indicated and will combine their 1 fimile Blanchard (b. 1819), a French naturalist, best known by his works on entomology. — Translator's Sote. 2 The Scaraba:! also bear the name of Ateuchus. — Aw thor's Note. 18 The Sacred Beetle been to fetch reinforcements; and this ex cJry fields, to see several Ateuchi joininc in the removal of a single ball." ^ str'uctin?^r'?^ir7 f^^^^rius;^ while con- structing the ball of dung destined to con- h stroVeT ^''l' ^^"•'"^^ ' ^"'^'' -hence aided P- V ' ^u "^ ''"^^ ^° "f'-'^et it un- aided. landing that she was wasting her time in vam efforts, she ran to a neighbour -.' heap of manure to fetch three inlv d J of her own species, who, uniting their strength to hers, succeeded in x.\lv,^ »-hp Koii c I ^"«->-ccutu in withdrawing the ball from the cavity into which it had fa len and then returned to their manure to continue their work." "t"ure to I crave a thousand pardons of my il- 'Mann Karl Wilhelm Illiger (n-,. ,9,,^ ^ naturalist, editor of a MnanJ^ r- P^,^^'' ^ German thor of Prodromuss^st]m^^;i ^"'' ^"f.^'^^'nkunde and au- Translator's nZc '^"""''"' ^'^"imahum et avium, etc.- latL'^rtrtredl^'^ffeTut" %P""«\^«'« -"'y - ge«s, he also rout X^,' ^rd^nf^uJ'A '^'^ "^^ '"«" very general, even n the nnr.i? *^V pymnopleurus is is hardly eve'r found a vay from the Vh " "^Tf '""^ '""' liMin.— Author's Note. ^ '''°'^" °^ ^^^ Mcditer- 19 I f I if The Sacred Beetle and Others lustrious master, M. Blanchard, but things certainly do not happen as he says. To begin with, the two accounts are so much alike that they must have had a common origin, llliger, on the strength of observations not continuous enough to deserve blind confi- dence, put forward the case of his Gymno- pleurus; and the same story was repeated about the Scarabaei because it Is, in fact, quite usual to see two of these insects oc- cupied together either in rolling a ball or in getting it out of a troublesome place. But this cooperation in no way proves that the Dung-beetle who found himself in difficulties went to requisition the aid of his mates. 1 have had no small measure of the patience recommended by M. Blanchard; I have lived laborious days in close intimacy, if I may say so, with the Sacred Beetle; I have done every- thing that I could think of in order to enter into his ways and habits as thoroughly as possible and to study them from life; and I have never seen anything th suggested either nearly or remotely the a of com- panions summoned to lend assistance. As I shall presently relate, I have subjected the Dung-beetle to far more serious trials than that of getting his ball into a hole; I ha confronted him with much graver difficult ave ies The Sacred Beetle help; and never did m ""''."^^^^ "^^^ of denre nf ( f, ""^ ^y" ^^tect any evi- robbed and BTetle, . Ik ™ '"" '^'=«l" more If n „„"k ^°';'""8 ^"^ ""thing around *e\r 'pill.t tTn^X ^^^^^^ of Scarabaeit„*:J"rrr„;^He""st: ball ,v,th th,ev,ng intentions has given ,1 "nd''':\aid:'",;;erct":!b: "''''=" '° responsible for tbr;:rnsfot"t7or"of tb: bold highwayman nto a helnf.,1 . • ftnd?; tn[f "'^ «-^ ^^ -X'- -v;e:°,^*rir;-«t-; '•: -• '- combined with an ev .n J ^ • ''^"^t'on, -re tbL Z i^t,- ^^,r -n^i;™-- 21 1 Mi f ^ ! The Sacred Beetle and Others sist on my point. What I Are we to believe that a Beetle in distress will conceive the idea of going in quest of help? We are to imagine him flying off and scouring the country to find fellow-workers on some patch of dung; when he has found them, we are to suppose that he addresses them, in some sort of pantomime, by gestures with his antennae more particularly, in some such words as these : " I say, you fellows, my load's upset in a hole over there; come and help me get it out. I'll do as much for you one day! " And we are to believe that his comrades understand ! And, more incredible still, that they straightway leave their work, the pellet which they have just begun, the beloved pill exposed to the cupidity of others and certain to be filched in their absence, and go to the help of the suppliant! I am profoundly in- credulous of such unselfishness; and my in- credulity is confirmed by what I have wit- nessed for years and years, not in glass-cases but in the very places where the Scarab works. Apart from its maternal solicitude, in which respect it is nearly always admirable, the in- sect cares for nothing but itself, unless it lives in societies, like the Hive-bees, the Ants and the rest. 22 ^^L/^ti^'^- •ys^miimmKmMiM^^^sa^^iz^'S&i^iiKm: The Sacred Beetle But let me end this digression, which is excused by the importar- of the subject. I was saying that a Sacrea ceetle, in possession of a ball which he is pushing backwards, is often joined by another, who comes hurrying up to lend an assistance which is anything but disinterested, his intention being to rob his companion if the opportunity present itself. Let us call the two workers partners, though tht is not the proper name for them, seeing that the one forces himself upon the other, who probably accepts outside help only for fear of a worse evil. The meeting, by the way. is absolutely peaceful. The owner of the ball does no. cease work for an instant on the arrival of the newcomer; and his uninvited assistant seems animated by the best intentions and sets to work on the spot. The way in which the two partners harness themselves differs. The proprietor occupies the chief position, the place of honour: he pushes at the rear, with his hind- legs in the air and his head down. His sub- ordinate is in front, in the reverse posture, head up, toothed arms on the ball, long hind- legs on tl.e ground. Between the two, the ball rolls along, one driving it before him, the other pulling it towards him. The efforts of the couple are not always 23 The Sacred Beetle and Others very harmonious, the more so as the assistant has his back to the road to be traversed, while the owner's view is impeded by the load. The result is that they are constantly having accidents, absurd tumbles, taken cheerfully and in good part: each picks himself up quickly and resumes the same position as be- fore. On level ground, this system of trac- tion does not correspond with the dynr-^nic force expended, through lack of precision in the combined movements: the Scarab at the back would do as well and better if left to himself. And so the helper, having given a proof of his good-will at the risk of throw- ing the machinery out of gear, now decides to keep still, without letting go of the precious ball, of course. He already looks upon that as his: a ball touched is a ball gained. He won't be so silly as not to stick to it : the other might give him the slip! So he gathers his legs flat under his belly, encrusting himself, so to speak, on the ball and becoming one with it. Henceforth, the whole concern — the ball and the Beetle clinging to its surface — is rolled along by the ettorts of the lawful owner. The in- truder sits tight and lies low, heedless whether the load pass over his body, whether he be at the top, bottom or side of the roll- 24 m i!4^<^K^^7ri^ig^rr^«':ii''iN^^ The Sacred Beetle ing ball. A queer sort of assistant ho gets But a steep ascent heaves in sight and nives h,m a t,„e part to play. He tLs thcS now holdmg up the heavy mass with his 00 hed arms, while his mate seeks a pu ! hasc m order to ho.st the load a little higher ftort's' Te r' ^r^'"'''""" °f »c!l.dirccted Mow n,.h- t'l"''"™ e^W'"& t'"= one be ow pushmg, I have seen a couple mount hills which would have been too much Tr a single porter, however persevering Bui^ imes of difficulty not all show the fame "ea there are some who, on awkward^ slopes' where their assistance is most needed seem blissfully unaware of the trouble. Wh le th^ unhappy Sisyphus exhausts himself „ a, "^mpts to get oyer the bad part, the other ^,,">' "'^ves h™ ,„ ;,^ Jbedded in the ban, he rolls down with it if it comes to grief a?resh. °'"'' "P "'"^ '" -'■^" 'hey f.n 1 have often tried the following e\periment on the two partners in order to judjre tTeir preaicament Suppose them to be on level ground, number two seated motionless on the ball, number one busy pushing. Without 25 •« N ' 'I The Sacred Beetle and Others disturbing the latter, I nail the ball to the ground with a long, strong pin. It stops suddenly. The Beetle, unaware of my perridy, doubtless believes that some natural obstacle, a rut, a tuft of couch-grass, a pebble, bars the way. He redoubles his efforts, struggles his hardest; nothing hap- pens. " What can the matter be? Let's go and see." The Beetle walks two or three times round his pellet. Discovering nothing to account for its immobility, he returns to the rear and starts pushing again. The ball remains stationary. " Let's look up above." The Beetle goes up to find nothing but his motionless colleague, for I had taken care to drive in the pin so deep that the head dis- appeared in the ball. He explores the whole upper surface and comes down again. Fresh thrusts are vigorously applied in front and at the sides, with the same absence of success. There is not a doubt about it : never before was Dung-beetle confronted with such a problem in inertia. Now is the time, the very time, to claim assistance, which is all the easier as his mate is there, close at hand, squatting on the 26 ^MW^^^^W^^r^^ , m The Sacred Beetle summh of the ball. Will the Scarab rouse him? \\ ,11 he talk to him like this: What are you doing there, lazybones? W and look at the thing: it's broken th^u'^'h ^T" '^^' ^' ^«" ^"ythlng of nn h L M^"'"-^ ''' ^'"^ ^^^^^'b' shaking^he unshakable, mspecting his stationary ma! chine on every side, while all this time his ever, the lat er becomes aware that some- thmg unusual ,s happening; he is apprised of It by h,s mate's restless tramping and by the immob.hty of the ball. He comes down! chine. Double harness does no better than in^le harness. This is beginning to Wk serious. J he l.ttle fans of the Beetles' an- tennae open and shut, open again, betraying by their agitation acute anxiety. Then a stroke of genius ends the perplexity: VVho knows what's underneath > " and rLir^-'"''' '"'P^^'"'"^ ^^^°^^' '^' ball; troteihere'^' ""^"'^'^ '' «"" ^^- ^^^ " We must make a hole in the ball and 27 rs-=?s»iirv»! ?awvjnj«pi ■S.^-JLi^'MiB** n ■< :\ The Sacred Beetle and Others pull out that skewer which is holding it down." This most elementary of all proceedings and one so easy to such expert diggers was not adopted, was not even tried. The Dung- beetle was shrewder than man. The two colleagues, one on this side, one on that, slip under tht ball, which begins to slide up the pin, getting higher and higher in proportion as the living wedges make their way under- neath. The clever operation is made pos- sible by the softness of the material, which gives easily and makes a channel under the head of the immovable stake. Soon the pellet is suspended at a height equal to the thickness of the Scarabs' bodies. The rest is not such plain sailing. The Dung- beetles, who at first were lying flat, rise gradually to their feet, still pushing with their backs. The work becomes harder and harder as the legs, in straightening out, lose their strength; but none the less they do it. Then comes a time when they can no longer push with their backs, the limit of their height having been reached. A last resource remains, but one much less favourable to the development of motive power. This is for the insect to adopt one or other of its postures when harnessed to 28 M,.^-.:'^M^'? /^''^-;.';i^^^.ia^^ib^ The Sacred Beetle n,ade by our stake is r'.plirlTj'lXt being suspended aTl I, T'^ I"''' "^s by ehe Lecfs fu^ sertu^e'^'S'tht^se^r ' tben, by -isinHhe ^L ^.hT s":„\t Its use ^ ^° '''"^'""^ ^' 5 labours. fin^dsj;tro;fc:."^5^,r:-i,'r passed, he felt the ball touch h,Lck t n~'Ce"^lt^^T"'^ ""' ^""^ rounds his shoulders, as onr^Tght'L 'aTd 11 I ' 8 *l tr^, The Sacred Beetle and Others shoves the pellet upwards. When his shoulders no longer avail, he works with his legs, now upright, now head downwards. .There is a fresh pause, accompanied by fresh signs of unea:;iness, when tlie limit of exten- sion is reached. Thereupon, without dis- tu"bing the creature, we place a second little stone on the top of the first. With the aid of this new step, which provides a fulcrum for its leyers, the insect pursues its task. Thus adding story upon story as required, I have seen the Scarab, hoisted to the summit of a tottering pile three or four fingers'-breadth in height, persevere in his work until the ball was completely detached. Had he some vague consciousness of the service performed by the gradual raising of the pedestal ? T venture to doubt it, though he cleverly toi advantage of my platform of little stone . As a matter of fact, if the very elementuiy idea of using a higher sup- port in order to reach something placed above one's grasp were not beyond the Beetle's comprehension, how is it that, when there are two of them, neither thinks of lend- ing the other his back so as to raise him by that much and make it possible for him to go on working? If one helped the other in this way, they could reach twice as high. 30 •;^:*'V^ ^mj^m The Sacred Beetle SSa ;=:;■='"■« alone and seem V„ht' '""''" " '^ ^^ "'^^ stoppa..eTh ;h rfr "n^ artiricially a 1 H-^Kc wnicn Is not rea V verv HiH,.r,.««. irrcmilnrlflM „( »i, rnousancl and one behT.rn 'he ground; and the Beetle h V b h" :;.>' f^^7""-f.^l tests, as he wocU which had'„:"p":*' ° h" ^-T.«-ccs in can avail hi^;?f^rftisti:tre^'""""-<^ diS;" whe': he h™' '" ^'"^ "f ">e 'vuiiy, wnen he has no assi^Mnt- u- ball end ,n success, provided that we give 31 l>i.. * X^lM ii ■ i » a f if The Sacred IJeetle and Others him the indispensable support of a platform, built up little by little. If we deny him this succour, then, no longer encouraged by the contact of his beloved ball, he loses heart and sooner or later Hie- away, doubtless with many regrets, and disappears. Where to? I do not know. What I do krow is that he aoes not return with a gang of fellow- labourers whom he has begged to help him. What would he do with them, he who cannot make use of even one comrade? But perhaps mv experiment, which leaves the ball suspended at an inaccessible height and the insect with its means of action exhausted, is a little too far removed from ordinary conditions. Let us try instead a miniature pit, deep enough and steep enough to prevent the Dung-beetle, when placed at the bottom, from rolling his load up the side. These are exactly the conditions stated by Messrs. Blanchard and Iliiger. Well, what happens? When dogged but utterly fniitless efforts have convinced him of his helplessness, the Beetle takes wing and dis- appears. Relying upon what these learned writers said, I have waited long hours for the insect to return reinforced by a few friends. I have always waited in vain. Many a time also I have found the pellet 32 m^i^ijMi' The Sacred Beetle IZTl ^'y'. '»'" i"" vvherc I left it stucic at the top o: a p n or in a liol,. nV„ • ^ nothinir fresh ha.l l,L„ ?■' P'^°™S that A ball^bandoned fromn '"."'>■.=''«"«. abandone.1 for !m„ I •"""»">■ •' » ball -Iva^ewi'thtr/ofoX's^ATT'" "»e of wedge and leve' to seTthelll n'"' again is thcrefr.re, whc, nil i! !v . u ""'"S "t intellectuni effort „hk T I ''' ""^ Stat- in the Sacred lietr T^V.^Z f"".'" the experiment refutes, namdy an 'am'art' cie "thT 's ':!i"--T'^^^- • giadT/ch „'°: they select a fav^irable .o Th ' TA onner, the Beetle who thro • h ^ J'^^'^"^ the Dhco of f, ^^n" tnro- ^hout has kept int pjace of honour, beh nd the hnU ^K« b;tn;:e??"J;'^^=t"•"?''''■''-^ ««o clinging ,„ i, sh^mmingj: 'd "v''" ber one attacks the sand ,tith"h1s sharp-' 'I 1 The Sacred Beetle and Others edged forehead and his toothed legs; he flings armfuls of it behind him ; and the work of excavating proceeds apace. Soon the Beetle has disappeared from view in the half-dug cavern. Whenever he returns to the upper air with a load, he invariably glances at his ball to see if all is well. From time to time, he brings it nearer the threshold of the burrow; he feels it and seems to ac- quire new vigour from the coi<*'?ct. The other, lying demure and motionless on the ball, continues to inspire confidence. Mean- while the underground hall grows larger and deeper; and the digger's field of operations is now too vast for any but very occasional appearances. Now is the time. The crafty sleeper awakens and hurriedly decamps with the ball, which he pushes behind him with the speed of a pickpocket anxious not to be caught in the act. This breach of trust rouses my indignation, but the historian tri- umphs for the moment over the moral'st and I leave him alone: I shall hrvc time enough to intervene on the side of law and order if things threaten to turn out badly. The thief is already some yards away. His victim comes out of the burrow, looks around and finds nothing. Doubtless an old hand himself, he knows what this means. 34 The Sacred Beetle Scent and sight soon put him on the track. tie makes haste and catches up the robber: but the artful dodger, when he feels his pursuer close on his heels, promptly changes his posture, gets on his hind-legs and clasps the ball with his toothed arms, as he does wnen actmg as an assistant. You rogue, you I I see through your tricks: you mean to plead as an excuse that the pellet rolled down the slope and that you are only trying to stop it and bring it back home. I, however, an impartial wit- ness declare that the ball was quite steady at the entrance to the burrow and did not roll of Its own accord. Besides, the ground is level. ^ I declare that I saw you set the thing in motio- and make off with unmistakable intentions. It was an attempt at larceny, or J ve never seen one! My evidence is not admitted. The owner cheerfully accepts the other's excuses; and the two bring the ball back to the burrow as thoii-h nothing had happened. If the thief, however, has time to get far enough away, or if he manages to cover his traH by adroitly doubling back, the injury IS irreparable. To collect provisions under a blazing sun, to cart them a long distance, to dig a comfortable banqueting-hall in the 35 mKmkA^^^ • ti i 11 III A 111 » I li ^f i ■1 =1 S The Sacred Beetle and Others sand and then — just when everything is ready and your appetite, whetted by exercise, lends an added charm to the approaching feast — suddenly to find yourself cheated by a crafty partner is, it must be admitted, a reverse of fortune that would dishearten most of us. The Dung-beetle does not allow himself to be cast down by this piece of ill- luck: he rubs his cheeks, spreads his an- tennae, sniffs the air and flies to the nearest heap to begin all over again. I admire and envy this cast of character. Suppose the Scarab fortunate enough to have found a loyal partner; or, better still, suppose that he has met no self-invited companion. The burrow is ready. It is a shallow cavity, about the size of one s fist, dug in soft earth, usually in sand, and com- municating with the outside by a short passage just wide enough to admit the ball. As soon as the provisions are safely stored away, the Scarab shuts himself In by stopping up the entrance to his dwelling with rubbish kept In a corner for the purpose. Once the door is closed, nothing outside betrays the existence of the banquetlng-chamber. And, now, hail mirth and jollity! All Is for the best In the best of all poss". le worlds! The table is sumptuously spread; the ceiling tem- 36 i'Wm^^mwmm^^mmwm^j^mriB^mmimwKmn m m-^^w^^- The Sacred Beetle pers the heat of the sun and allows only a moist and gentle warmth to penetrate; the undisturbed quiet, the darkness, the Crickets' concert overhead are all pleasant aids to di- gestion. So complete has been the fusion that 1 have caught myself listening at the door expecting to hear the revellers burst into the famous snatch in Galatee: ^ Ah! qu'il est doux de ne rien faire Quand tout s'agite autour de nous.^ Who would dare disturb the bliss of such a banquet? But the desire for knowledge IS capable of all things; and I had the neces- sary daring. I will set down here the re- sult of my violation of the home The ball by itself fills almost the whole room; the rich repast rises from floor to ceiling. A narrow passage runs between It and the walls. Here sit the banqueters, two at most, very often only one, belly to table, back to the wall. Once the seat is chosen, no one stirs; all the vital forces are absorbed by the digestive faculties. There 1 A light opera, with music by Victot Masse and Whr^ftn, ^y^Jules Barb.er and Michel Carre (1852).- flSS When round us throbs the busy world ' " 37 ^-^m !.5; ■J , If !i ill: The Sacred Beetle and Others is no fidgeting, which might mean the loss of a mouthful; no dainty toying with the food, which might cause some to be wasted. Everything has to pass through, properly and in order. To see them seated so solemnly around a ball of dung, one would think that they were conscious of their function as cleansers of the earth and that they were deliberately devoting themselves to that marvellous chemistry which out of filth brings forth the flower that delights our eyes and the Beetles' wing-case that jewels our lawns in spring. For this supreme work which turns into living matter the refuse which neither the Horse nor the Mule can utilize, despite the perfection of their digestive organs, the Dung-beetle must needs be specially equipped. And indeed anatomy compels us to admire the prodigious length of his coiled intestine, which slowly elaborates the materials in its manifold wind- ings and exhausts them to the very last serviceable atom. Matter from which the ruminant's stomach could extract nothing, yields to this powerful alembic riches that, at a mere touch, are transmuted into ebon mail in the Sacred Scarab and a breast- plate of gold and rubies in other Dung- beetles. 38 VWjiMt ^mm^^mi;.^^M'!^ The Sacred Beetle Now this wonderful metamorphosis of ordure has to be accomplished in the short- est possible time: the public health demands It. And so the Scarab is endowed with matchless digestive powers. Once housed in the company of food, he goes on eating and digesting, day and night, until the provisions are exhausted. There is no difficulty in proving this Open the cell to which the Uung-beetle has retired from the world At any hour of the day, we shall find the insect seated at table and, behind it, still hanging to it, a continuous cord, roughly coileu like a pile of cables. One can easily guess, with- out embarrassing explanations, what this cord represents. The great ball of dung passes^ mouthful by mouthful through the Beetles digestive canals, yielding up its nutritive essences, and reappears at the op- posite end spun into a cord. Well, this un- broken cord, which is always found hanging from the aperture of the Jraw-plate, is amp e proof, without further evidence, that the digestive processes go on without ceasing. VVhen the provisions are coming to an end, the cable unrolled is of an astounding length- It can be measured in feet. Where shall we hnd the like of this stomach which, to avoid any loss when life's balance-sheet is made out, 39 A' '«,. ^ ■ f. I The Sacred Beetle and Others feasts for a week or a fortnight, without stopping, on such distasteful fare ? When the whole ball has passed through the machine, the hermit comes back to the daylight, tries his luck afresh, finds another patch of dung, fashions a new ball and starts eatmg again. This life of pleasure lasts for a month or two, from May to June; then, with the coming of the fierce heat beloved of the Cicadas,^ the Sacred Beetles take up their summer quarters and bury themselves in the cool earth. They reappear with the first autumn rains, less numerous and less active than in spring, but now seemingly absorbed in the most important work of all, the future of the species. 1 Cf. The Life of the Grasshopper, bv J. Henri Fabre, transited by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chaps, i to v.— Translator's Note. 40 >^^:Ml3l£4.-:»-s CHAPTER II -/"' ""'^'^ ""^^ 'N «Pnv,„ g<^ne"l and the Sacred R,''^"^-™"'" in ^' fi"d that modern 1? "'' '" P^'icular the days of the Pharaohs wr ""•""' " the ball which is bumped Irru''' '"''' 'hat tarns an egg, that iUs a crad? '^' "''* ^"n- future larva is to find bo?h h^^ '" "■'"■^'> 'he The parents roll it overL-» "^ '"'' '"^ging ■' n-ce and round a„d wl'"°T^ """^ke and tumbles down ste^n 7 '" .>°'*' '"d jars P^PeHy, they bu^Z^Jl't ^'/' shaped care of that Jreat in^batorlh"'"" if '° ">= So roueh an imk-- .^'^o^' tne earth. '» "t ™pr:bab e'.""fl^l'>^' t^^^^ -emed egg, that delicate thing sr.^"'- ' ^""='s foft wrapper, survive th, T^"" ""''" ''" 'would undergo in^hat ro l"""«-"P "■'"'^h fhe germ is a loart „f r? '"« '''•'""e? In 'ouch, the veriesftrifle J'/'^ T•'•'^^ "^^ '"' w« to believe that the n,""^'*''- ^re the parents would de- 5 il ■«S