The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-04-18
"D0odle " Bugs.o

1t is a 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,
"We call the Doodle Bugs up any
time we have mind" said some little
girls to me one day when was teaching
school in Western Virginia.
doodle Bugs ?" said 1. CT never
heard of such things"
"Would you like to see them ?" asked
one.
"Most assuredly," I answered.
Then the little girl led me forth to the
ruins of an old log school-house, roofiess
and foorless, and, joining hands, they
squatted upon the ground, forming a
ring, and began chanting in the most
musical tones they could commando:
" Uncle Doodle, Uncle Doodle, Uncle
Doodle Bugs ?"
1 looked on in astonishment, for I
could see nothing but hard baked earth.
There seemed not q living thing visible !;
but the children kept up their chant
some three or four minutes, when 1
noticed the ground began to heave in
little spots and tiny heads peeped out,
soon followed by half or the whole body
of 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 beetles
called cOleOpterOus insects, because they
have wing cases; that is they have shells
OF 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 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
piller becomes butterfly, but some of
you may not know that nearly every
worm you can find, turns out some day
to be q 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 right in the
middle of the road on hot, dusty days
How they push and tumble, and get
their jackets all dusty in their efforts !!
Sometimes it takes two or three beetles
to roll their ball up an elevation or over
some impediment in the way.
Did you never wonder what all such
work meant, or did you suppose it was
Just the way those bugs have of amusing
themselves L can remember when 1
thought so myself. But after l became
older began to wonder where the bugs
got the balls, what they were made of,
and what they were going to do with
them. 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 as 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 its spherical home from early
September until the next spring, as
warm and cozy as you please, growing
larger and larger until it bursts from its
shell, 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 be-
gin tumbling and pushing like their
mothers before them.-A. e. G. Ander-
SON