Iron County register., 1880-07-15
QUEER LITTLE SECTIONS.

SEAlUNSs
There are not many of us who feel
inclined to seek the society of sections.
We have no especial fondness for view
ing their somber deeds, or investigating
their methods of procedure. AS a race,
we cherish no love for sections, but
rather avoid them as uncanny beings,
whose services we shall never seek in
our own behalf, but know full well that
some day, sooner or later, our friends
will seek them for us. We do not like
the idea. The deep, dark holes he digs,
in the pursuance of his somber trade,
are not inviting in appearance, and SO
we shrink from the grave-digger and
his associations.
All this is very true as applied to the
human sexton; but away down in the
lower scale of creation, among Gods g
humber creatures, there dwells fam
lily of sections whose movements are full
OF interest; whose company is sought,
not avoided, by the lover of Nature;
whose grave-digging proceedings are
observed with strong interest, instead
of being avoided with an irrepressible
shudder. In this family, of which there
are several branches or tribes, the men,
bers are all sections. The office is he
reditary, descending alike from father to
son, from mother to daughter. To dig
graves, to bury corpses, is the one bust
ness of their lives, and very engross-
ing occupation they apparently find it.
They boast hig-sounding name. We
might call it national name, for it en-
braces all the several tribes. Necro-
phagr, or, if you are inclined to treat
them with familiarity that savors of
disrespect, you may call them-as most
people do = Grave-digging Beetles.
They have their own family name. dis
tinct from those of the general tribe,
and these, too, have an aristocratic flavor
of their own, such as Hister cddaUer-
mus. NecrOphOrats UestigdtOr, Silpha
Opdca, and several others equally inn
| pressive.
Each family has a uniform of its own.
| Some are arrayed in shining brown
| coats, others in rusty-black, others have
bright-orange bars crossing their broad
/ backs, while one pigmy family boasts of
| the finest Jet And to this queer little
nation of sections we, the proud race of
humanity, owe much, though few of us
recognize the debt.
| We have often heard the query:
"How is it that, in walking in the
woods, we never come upon the dead
/ bodies of birds or small animals?' We
/ know that many of them must die from
natural causes in the depths of their
! native forests, vet their bodies are never
seen. Why? Because the Creator,
/ ever thoughtful for His creatures, in
/ small as in great things, has ordered
/ the little race of sexton-b beetles to seek
out and bury these dead bodies, that
else would pollute the air and fill it
with poisonous miasma; and faithfully
do the little workers perform their task,
not only preserving the air in all it's
purity, but actually adding to the fer
tility of the soil by covering up in its
bosom the elements of decay, which 90
so far in nourishlng vegetation.
And thus. in two direct ways, each
of them of the utmost importance, do
the insect sections serve mankind. But
God, ever-mindful of His least crea-
lures, has ordained that in working for
others they shall also serve themselves.
! The first they do, all unconscious of
their service; the second they do with
| full intent and knowledge.
! 1t is the business of their lives to
bury dead animals. Why? They would
tell you, if they could speak: because
they furnish the proper substance on
which 10 deposit the eggs from which
| spring our race. The decaying flesh
| first aids, by its heat. to hatch the eggs,
and afterward feeds the larvae" And
most wonderfully does the food thus
provided for the family of little ones
seem to agree with them, for once they
emerge from the yellow tube in which
they envelope themselves. the small,
Aottich h1onI- Io, I, ~
thither with most wonderful speed,
without any apparent object but that of
getting rid of some of their superabund-
ant activity.
| We had often desired to see these
| queer little sections at work, but never
succeeded until very recently. Not
many days ago, however, a mole,
which had been making sad havoc
among the roots of some young orange
trees, was finally shot, and as we had
observed several beetles close by, we
resolved to put surmise as to their be-
ing "seXtOns" to the test. So we cast
the dead mole, with studied careless
ness, upon the ground, beneath the
broad leaves of a banana. We were
| not very hopeful of the result, for the
sections love best to pursue their trade
in the dead of night, and unless greatly
in want of a depository for their eggs,
they seldom work by day. But evil
IDENTIFY our particular friends were
pressed, for in a few moments two
orange-barred beetles came flying, with
widespread wings, and alighted on
lower leaf of the banana. An instant
or two of investigation, and then, ap-
parently satisfied that the corpse was
bona tide, down they swooped upon it,
and tucking their broad wings careful
| ly out of sight, promenaded awhile up
and down, over and around the body,
as though on a tour of inspection. At
length they set about their work in real
earnest. Now, consider a moment
that mole was at least fifty times as
large as the sections who were about to
dig its grave, so YOU will perceive that
to dig a hole, and then drag the mole
to it, was as impossible as for you or
me to drag an elephant. In fact, these