LESSON XXVII.
THE LITTLE SEXTON.
Once, when I was a little girl, I saw a dark beetle standing on its hind pair of legs. It was holding its fore legs clasped over its head, as you can hold up your hands.
An old man who was near said, “That is a holy bug, and shows what man ought to do. It is saying its prayers. People call it the ‘praying beetle.’”
I think the old man meant what he said, but of course the beetle was neither holy nor praying. The queer way of standing was only one of the odd ways of beetles. Now I will tell you of another.
Very often on the road you will see a beetle, or a pair of beetles, rolling about a small ball like a marble. The ball is of dirt, or some soft stuff, and is often larger than the beetle. But she rolls it with ease, for she is very strong.
The beetle is not playing marbles nor base-ball.She is only doing her work. She has been flying about, looking for a good place in which to lay her eggs, and now she has gone to work with all her might.
She lays her egg in a morsel of the stuff of which she will make her ball. When the larva comes from the egg, this ball will be its food until it is strong enough to crawl about and seek food for itself. The beetle moulds the soft stuff over the egg, like a pill. Then, as she rolls it about, it grows larger, as your snowball grows when you roll it about in the snow.
When the ball is large enough, Mrs. Beetle does not leave it in the road for wheels to run over or feet to tread upon. She seeks a place where the larva may be safe and feed well when it comes from the egg.
She shows much sense in the choice of a place. She drags the ball along between her hind feet, or she pushes it with her fore feet or her hind feet, or rolls it along toward the safe place which she has chosen. If the ground is so rough that she cannot drag her ball, she carries it on her head.
This Mrs. Beetle’s head is flat, and has some wee knobs upon it. These knobs hold her load firmly in place as she carries it along. Did you ever see a boy carry a box, pail, or bundle on his head?
Perhaps Mrs. Beetle finds that she cannot, without help, take her ball to a good place. Then she flies off, and soon comes back with other beetles of her own kind. They all help her until her ball is where she wishes it to be. How does she tell them what she needs? Who knows that? No one. I have seen four or five beetles at work on one ball.
When the ball is in the right spot, Mrs. Beetle digs a hole with her jaws and horny fore legs. Then she rolls the ball in. She fills up the hole with earth and presses it down flat.
This is not the only beetle that buries its eggs. There is another one, called the Sexton Beetle. When it finds a dead bird, or mouse, or frog, or other small animal, it sets to work to bury it. It digs a little grave for it. This is why it is called a sexton.
This beetle begins to dig under the dead body. As it takes out the earth, the dead thing sinks more and more. At last it is deep enough to be covered, as a coffin is covered in a grave.
In this way this beetle helps to keep the earth and air clean. Is that why it buries things? Oh, no! The reason the beetle does this is, it wants to get a good place for its eggs.
These sexton beetles are black, with yellow bands. They are rather large, and go in pairs. You mightthink these beetles and the one who makes the ball would be dirty from their work, but they are not.
The Sexton Beetle.
The Sexton Beetle.
These beetles have a kind of oil over their bodies. This keeps any dirt from sticking to them. So, though they work in dirty places, they are always clean and bright.
These burying beetles have a keen scent. They can smell a dead body even if it is a long way off. Let us watch Mr. and Mrs. Sexton Beetle at work. Here is a dead mouse. Through the air come flyingthese two beetles. Their wings hum as they come.
When they alight, Mr. Beetle goes briskly to his work, and Mrs. Beetle stands looking on. Her work in this world is not to dig, but to lay eggs. Before the work begins, they both make a good meal off the dead mouse. All sexton beetles eat flesh.
Mr. Beetle works a while. Then he drops down as if very tired, and sleeps. Then up he gets and ploughs furrow after furrow about the mouse. Mr. Beetle uses his head for a plough. Now the dead body has sunk out of sight. Mr. Beetle has put over it the earth he took out from the grave which he made. He makes all the little grave smooth and trim.
But what is this queer little fellow doing now? He has made a little side door into the grave. He and Mrs. Beetle walk in. They have gone to take another meal from the mouse.
When their dinner is over, Mrs. Beetle lays some eggs in the dead body. She knows that when the larvæ come from the eggs, they will like to eat the food which they will find all around them. After the eggs are laid, Mr. and Mrs. Beetle come out into the air.
Mr. Beetle fills up the doorway. Then off the two fly to find other things to bury.
The larva of the sexton beetle looks much like a beach flea or sand-hopper.
Does the strength of beetles surprise you? They have strong, sharp jaws. Once I found a fine grass-green beetle, with silver spots. I wanted him for my card of beetles. I tied him in the hem of my handkerchief to carry him home. The hem was double, but he ate a hole through it; then away he went.
Once I shut up ten beetles in a box. I forgot them for two days. When I opened the box, they were all dead. They had killed each other. The box had in it only heads and legs and wings. The last beetle that had been left had lost his legs and wings. He had won the battle, but died on the field. Some other great captains have done the same.