. The sacred beetle, and others [microform]. Beetles; Coléoptères. The Sacred Beetle and Others know and can know nothing of maternal affection. The Coprcs have other and fundamentally different habits. Three or four eggs repre- sent their entire posterity. How are they to be preserved, to a great extent, from the accidents that await them? For them, so few in numbers, as for the others, whose name is legion, existence is an inexor- able struggle. The mother knows it and, in order to save her nearest and dearest, sacri- fices herself, giving up out-door pleasures, nocturnal flights and that
. The sacred beetle, and others [microform]. Beetles; Coléoptères. The Sacred Beetle and Others know and can know nothing of maternal affection. The Coprcs have other and fundamentally different habits. Three or four eggs repre- sent their entire posterity. How are they to be preserved, to a great extent, from the accidents that await them? For them, so few in numbers, as for the others, whose name is legion, existence is an inexor- able struggle. The mother knows it and, in order to save her nearest and dearest, sacri- fices herself, giving up out-door pleasures, nocturnal flights and that supreme delight of her race, the investigation of a fresh heap of dung. Hidden underground, by the side of her brood, she never leaves her nursery. She keeps watch; she brushes off the parasitic growths; she closes up the cracks; she drives off any ravagers that may appear: Acari,' tiny Staphyrmi,^ grubs of small Flies, Aphodii,^ Onthophagi.^ In S ')tcmber, she climbs ^ ciie surface with her family, which, having no further use for her, emancipa^^es itself and henceforth lives as it 1 Mites or 1 icks.â Translator's Note. 2 Rove-beetl *s.â Translator's Note. 3 A genus of V)Kin^-heex\ts.â Translator's Note. 4Cf. Chapters XI., XVII. and XVIII. of the present vol- ume.â Translator's Note. 2i6 f* -A. 'iRiffB?!-*?T^ss^i«r-; V â ^^jm^'. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Fabre, J. Henri (Jean Henri), 1823-1915. Toronto : McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbeetles, bookyear1918
