The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1878-04-30
to scamper away behind the nest.-st.
Nicholas.
" Doodle BUGS"
BY A. Z. G. ANDERSON.

ID A. LIE " ANDEhSON.
1t is known fact that nearly every.
thing in nature likes music; snakes have
danced to it, mice have come from their
holes and listened with rapt attention,
and even bugs are not insensible.
ave call the Doodle Bugs up any time
we have mind" said some little girls
to nae one day when l was teaching
school in Western Virginia.
"Doodle Bugs?' said l. "I never
heard of such things"
"Would you like to see them?" asked
one.
"Most assuredly," answered.
Then the little girls led me forth to
the ruins of an old log school-house,
roofess and foorless, and, Joining hands,
they squatted upon the ground, forming
ring, and began chanting in the most
musical tones they could command:
Uncle Doodle, Uncle Doodle Uncle
Doodle Bugs"
looked on in astonishment, for
could see nothing but hard-baked earth.
There seemed not living thing visible;
but the children kept up their chant
some three or four minutes, when l no.
ticed the ground began to heave in little
spots and tiny heads peeped out, soon
followed by half or the whole body of a
dirt-colored beetle.
When the children stopped singing
the little things scampered back into
their holes.
This struck me as very singular. But
then we are constantly meeting with
strange things in Bugdom. 1t is like
fairy land if we .only become interested.
There are many, many kinds of bee
ties called coleopterous insects, because
they have wing cases; that is, they have
shells or cases on their backs, under
which they fold their wings, some kinds
using them so very seldom that we would
never know that they had wings A
great many live under the ground, and
others on the trees, flowers and grain.
Indeed, there is scarce place where you
may not find them.
All of you know that the ugly cater
pillar becomes butterfly, but some of
you may not know that nearly every
worm you can find, turns out some day
to be creature with wings.
Almost every child who has lived in
the country has noticed, and perhaps
been very much amused with the Bill
Chafer, or tumble bug, as we call it
here in New Jersey. How they seem to
be playing with marbles in the middle
of the road on hot, dusty days! How
they push and tumble, and get their.
jackets all dusty in their efforts! Some
times it takes two or three beetles to
roll their ball up an elevation or over
some impeachment in the way.
Did you never wonder what all such
work meant, or dill you suppose it was
just the way those bugs have of anus
ing themselves? I can remember when
I thought so myself. But after I be-
came older began to wonder where the
bugs got the balls, what they were made
Of, and what they were going to do with
them. I have since found it out, and it
is all very interesting.
They make the balls out of the excre-
tions Of animals, in which they deposit
an egg, leaving it in the sun until it is
baked almost az hard as marble; then
begins their work. They toll and strug-
gle until they get the balls three feet
under ground. Then the little one is
left in it spherical home from early Sep
TENDER until the next spring as warm aud
cosy as you please, growing larger and
larger until it bursts from its shell, a
little worm with six legs, and creeps up
to the surface of the ground; or, as
some say, they remain in the balls until
they become chrysalids, and come out
beetles or tumble-bugs, ready to begin
tumbling and pushing like their mothers
before them.-W Wide Awake.