Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1854-07-26
The Insect Sexton.

The singular history of one of these in
sects-the N. Fespiio--is thus detailed by
NJ. Gleditch. He begins by informing Us
that he had often remarked that dead mole>
when laid upon the ground, especially upon
loose earth were almost SURE to disappear
In the course of two or three days, often in
twelve hours. To ascertain the cause, he
placed mole on one OF the beds in his gar
den. 1t had vanished by the third morn
ing; and digging where 1t had been laid,
he found it buried TO the depth of three
inches, and under it four beetles, which
seemed to have been agents Of this singu-
lar inhumatlon. Not perceiving anything
particular in the mole. he buried it again
and on examining at the end of six days
he found it swarmiug with maggots, appa-
rently the issue of the beetles, which he
now naturally concluded had buried the car
cass for the food of their future young.
To determine these points more clearly,
he put four of these insects into glass
vessel half filled with earth, and properly
secured, and upon The surface of the earth
two frogs. In less than twelve hours, one
of the frogs was inferred by two Of the
beetles the other two ran about the whole
dav as if busted in measuring the dimen-
sions of the remaining corpse, which on the
third day was also found buried. He then
introduced dead linnet. A pair Of beetles
was soon engaged upon the bird. Tney
began their operations by pushing out the
earth from under the body, so aS to form a
cavity for its reception: and it was curious
to see the efforts which the beetles mad ,
by dragging at the feathers of the bird from
below, to pull it into its grave. The male,
having driven the female away, continued
the work alone for five hours.
He lifted up the bird, changed its place,
turned it, and arranged it in the grave, and
from time 10 time came out OF the hole,
mounted upon if and trod it under foot and
then returned below and pulled it down.
AT length, apparently wearied with unln.
terrupted labor, it came forth and leaned
its head upon the earth beside the bird,
without the smallest motion, as if to rest IT.
self for full hour, when it again crept un-
der the earth. The next morning the bird
was an inch and a half under ground, and
the trench remained open the whole day,
the corpse seeming as if laid out on bier
surrounded with a rampant Of mould. In
the evening it had sunk half an inch low
er; and IN another day the work was COM
pleted and the bird covered.
Nj. Geditch continued to add other small
dead animals, which were sooner or later
buried, and the result of this experiment
was, that in fifty days four beetles had in
TERED, in the very small space Of earth
allotted them, twelve carcasses-namely,
four frogs, three small birds. two fishes,
one mole and two grasshoppers, besides the
entrails of fish, and two morsels of the
lungs OF an OK In another experiment,
single beetle buried mole, forty times its
own bulk and weight, in two days. 1t IS
plain that all this labor is incurred for the
sake of placing in security the future young
OF these industrious insects along with ne
cessary provision food. One mole would
have sulliced long time for the repast of
the beetles themselves, and they could
have more conveniently fed upon it above
ground than below; but if they had been
left thus exposed, both would have been ex-
po ed TO the imminent risk OF being de-
stroyed at mouthful by the first fox or
rapacious bird that chanced to espy them.