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A morning's search at these often produced me a score of species Staphylinidae, Nitidulidae, Onthophagi, and minute Carabidae, being the most abundant. About the latter part of September a heavy shower of rain fell, admonishing us that we might soon expect wet weather, much to the advantage of the baked-up country.
All black and as big as the largest of our Onthophagi, whom she greatly resembles in general build, Canthon bispinus is likewise an exploiter of dead bodies, if not always on her own behalf, at least on that of her offspring. The Sacred Beetle and Others: chaps. xi. xvii., and xviii. She introduces very original innovations into the pill-maker's art.
I know in my neighbourhood one Dung-beetle and one alone who also works among carrion. This is Onthophagus ovatus, LIN., a constant frequenter of dead Moles and Rabbits. But the dwarf undertaker does not on that account scorn stercoraceous fare: he feasts upon it like the other Onthophagi. Perhaps there is a twofold diet here: the bun for the adult; the highly-spiced, far-gone meat for the grub.
The Necrophori, "the first of the tiny scavengers of the fields," bury corpses in order to establish their progeny in them; in the space of a few hours an enormous body, a mole, a water-rat, or an adder, will completely disappear, buried under the earth. The Onthophagi purify the soil, "dividing all filth into tiny crumbs, ridding the earth of its defilements."
In less than a week the colourless insect turns a rusty red, next a sooty brown and then an ebony black. The process is completed; the insect possesses its normal colouring. Even so do the Copres, the Gymnopleuri, the Onites, the Onthophagi and many others behave; even so must the jewel of the pampas, the Splendid Phanæus set to work.
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