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The others leave the dried, emptied carcass to the air, the sport of the winds for months on end; he, treating it as a whole, makes a clean job of things at once. No visible trace of his work remains but a tiny hillock, a burial-mound, a tumulus. With his expeditious method, the Necrophorus is the first of the little purifiers of the fields.
When they have the good fortune to find the earth soft they can sink the prey in less than two hours to a depth of thirty centimetres. At this level they stop, and throw back into the hole the earth they have dug out, carefully smoothing the hillock which covers the grave. Thus stored up, the carcass is ready to receive the Necrophorus eggs.
Thirteen species of Brachelytra have been found; of carrion-beetles, a Necrophorus, a Silpha, quite of the figure of the subterranea, and a Catops. Of Pentamerides are still to be mentioned the Scydmaenus, Cryptophagus, Byrrhus, Cercyon, Psammodius, and Aphodius.
The difficulties of inhumation are capable of such variety as causes us already to foresee that the Necrophorus cannot employ fixed methods in the accomplishment of his labours. Exposed to fortuitous hazards, he must be able to modify his tactics within the limits of his modest perceptions.
The class we are now about to consider makes provision of animals either dead or in a torpid condition, with more or less art and more or less sure instinct. Most people have seen the Necrophorus or Burying Beetle working in fields or gardens.
The difficulties of inhumation are capable of such variety as causes us already to foresee that the Necrophorus cannot employ fixed methods in performing his task. Exposed to fortuitous hazards, he must be able to modify his tactics within the limits of his modest discernment.
Let us come to the feats of reason which have earned for the Necrophorus the best part of his fame and, to begin with, submit the case related by Clairville, that of the too hard soil and the call for assistance, to the test of experiment. With this object I pave the centre of the space beneath the cover, flush with the soil, with a brick, which I sprinkle with a thin layer of sand.
We are told that the Necrophorus in difficulties goes in search of assistance and returns with companions who assist him to bury the Mouse.
A slight displacement, caused by the effort of the insects' backs, is all that can possibly be effected. Ammophila and Cerceris, Sphex and Pompilus excavate their burrows wherever they please; they carry their prey on the wing, or, if too heavy, drag it afoot. The Necrophorus knows no such facilities in his task.
Besides that of the excavator, the Necrophorus certainly possesses another art: the art of breaking the cables, the roots, the stolons, the slender rhizomes which check the body's descent into the grave. To the work of the shovel and the pick must be added that of the shears. All this is perfectly logical and may be foreseen with complete lucidity.
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