the young larvae find themselves in
the presence of this stored food, which has been softened by
putrefaction and rendered more easy of digestion. If the treasure has
not fallen on a spot easy to dig, the _Necrophorus_ quickly recognise
the fact, and do not waste time in useless labour. Endowed with
considerable strength relatively to their size, three or four of them
creep beneath the prey, and co-ordinating their efforts they transport
it several metres off to a spot which they know by experience to be
suitable for their labours. It may happen that soft earth is too far
away, and transport becoming too difficult a task, they renounce it.
But as good food should never be wasted, they utilise it by feeding
themselves, awaiting a more manageable god-send for their offspring.

Many observers have studied these beetles, and all are surprised at
their sagacity, and the way in which their various operations are
adapted to circumstances; genuine reflection governs their acts, which
are always combined to produce a definite effect.

_Provision of paralysed living animals._--It is unnecessary to say how
much better it would be for the young larva to have at its disposal
instead of a carcass a living animal, but paralysed and rendered
motionless by some method. It is difficult to believe the thing
possible, yet nothing is better established. There is a hymenopterous
relative of the Wasp called the _Sphex_. Instead of laying up honey
they store animal provisions for their larvae. Fabre has studied one of
them, the _Sphex flavipennis_.[72] It is in September that this wasp
lays her eggs; during this month to shelter her little ones she
hollows out a dozen burrows and provisions them. She has then to
devote about three days' work to each of them, for there is much to
do, as may be imagined. For each of these hiding-places the _Sphex_
first pierces a horizontal gallery about two or three inches long;
then she bends it obliquely so that it penetrates deeply into the
earth, and it is again continued in this direction for about three
inches. At the end of this passage three or four chambers are made,
usually three; each of these is meant to receive one egg. The insect
interrupts its mining task, not forming the three chambers
consecutively; when the first is completed she provisions it--we shall
soon see in what manner--and lays an egg there; then she blocks it up,
suppressing all communication between this cell and the gallery; this