THE LITTLE SEXTON.
Once, when I was a little girl, I saw a dark beetle standing on its hind pair of legs. It was holding its fore legs clasped over its head, as you can hold up your hands.
An old man who was near said, “That is a holy bug, and shows what man ought to do. It is saying its prayers. People call it the ‘praying beetle.’”
I think the old man meant what he said, but of course the beetle was neither holy nor praying. The queer way of standing was only one of the odd ways of beetles. Now I will tell you of another.
Very often on the road you will see a beetle, or a pair of beetles, rolling about a small ball like a marble. The ball is of dirt, or some soft stuff, and is often larger than the beetle. But she rolls it with ease, for she is very strong.
The beetle is not playing marbles nor base-ball. She is only doing her work. She has been flying about, looking for a good place in which to lay her eggs, and now she has gone to work with all her might.
She lays her egg in a morsel of the stuff of which she will make her ball. When the larva comes from the egg, this ball will be its food until it is strong enough to crawl about and seek food for itself. The beetle moulds the soft stuff over the egg, like a pill. Then, as she rolls it about, it grows larger, as your snowball grows when you roll it about in the snow.
When the ball is large enough, Mrs. Beetle does not leave it in the road for wheels to run over or feet to tread upon. She seeks a place where the larva may be safe and feed well when it comes from the egg.
She shows much sense in the choice of a place. She drags the ball along between her hind feet, or she pushes it with her fore feet or her hind feet, or rolls it along toward the safe place which she has chosen. If the ground is so rough that she cannot drag her ball, she carries it on her head.
This Mrs. Beetle’s head is flat, and has some wee knobs upon it. These knobs hold her load firmly in place as she carries it along. Did you ever see a boy carry a box, pail, or bundle on his head?