. Denizens of the desert; a book of southwestern mammals, birds, and reptiles, by Edmund C. Jaeger .. . eetlewith a shake of his head. I have heard them say-ing down there that to-morrow they would chaseaway and thoroughly chastise everybody who de-filed the public trails of this country, and they aremaking ready as fast as they can! Souls of my ancestors! cried the Coyote. Ihave been loitering along the trail this very morn-ing, and have defiled it repeatedly. Ill cut!And away he ran as fast as he could go. The Beetle in pure exuberance of spirits turnedsomersaults and struck his head in the
. Denizens of the desert; a book of southwestern mammals, birds, and reptiles, by Edmund C. Jaeger .. . eetlewith a shake of his head. I have heard them say-ing down there that to-morrow they would chaseaway and thoroughly chastise everybody who de-filed the public trails of this country, and they aremaking ready as fast as they can! Souls of my ancestors! cried the Coyote. Ihave been loitering along the trail this very morn-ing, and have defiled it repeatedly. Ill cut!And away he ran as fast as he could go. The Beetle in pure exuberance of spirits turnedsomersaults and struck his head in the sand untilit was quite turned. Thus did the Beetle in the days of the ancientssave himself from being bitten. . Thus shortensmy story. Though often spoken of as a bug, this insectis a true beetle. We know this because he chewshis food and has hard horny wing covers. Bugsalways suck their food through a long, needle-like proboscis, or beak, and they have soft wingcovers. One day I became curious to know whatwas under the high arched wing covers of thetumblebug. A dissection revealed that a great. ELEODES THE BEETLE 121 hollow air-filled space took up most of the room,and that only a very little place was given forthe abdomen. This explained to me why I hadalways been deceived when I attempted tojudge the weight of the tumblebug by his size. The food of these beetles is largely driedvegetation and fungi. This is true both in thelarval and in the adult stages; hence I cannotsee any special virtue in ending their lives bystepping on every one one sees, as is the habitwith some unthinking and cruel people. Thepinacate beetles, as they are often called in theSouthwestern United States and Mexico, ex-hibit a good deal of dexterity in eating theirfood. Time and time again I have seen themhold a food morsel down to the ground with onefoot, much as a dog does his bone, while gnaw-ing it. Also I have seen them take up a pieceof food and run away with it when disturbed,holding it up with t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1922
