TUMBLE-BUGS.

BY CHARLES G. MORTON.

verybody has seen tumble-bugs rolling their dust-covered balls along some path or highway in the country, but few people are aware that these little insects are the lineal descendants, so to speak, of a deity—the sacred scarabæus of the Egyptians, of which we have read so much. The little fellows, in seeming indifference to their fall from high estate, are still rolling their balls as industriously as they did on the banks of the Nile in Moses's time.

The coleoptera, or beetles, form the highest division of insects. They all have six legs, and a distinctly marked head, thorax, and abdomen. The body is covered with a horny envelope, which takes the place of the skeleton in higher creatures, protecting and holding the organs in place. The beetle has also four wings, one pair over the other. The lower ones are of a parchmentlike substance, while the upper ones are horny.

Beetles are of various kinds, some of which are useful to man, and others harmful. Scavenger-beetles belong to the former class, and no one variety is more interesting than the pellet-beetle or tumble-bug.

This little fellow, of one species or another, is found all over the United States, in Europe, and in northern Africa. With us he is from half to three-quarters of an inch in length, and coal-black.

The most remarkable thing about tumble-bugs, and one which excites the curiosity of every one who observes them, is the manner in which the egg is developed into the perfect insect. This egg is laid in manure, which is mixed with a little clay, and then rolled into a ball about the size of a marble, and left to dry. For the work that is to follow, the powerful legs and jaws of the insect are well adapted. No better proof of its strength may be obtained than by putting one or two bugs under a candlestick on a table, and noticing the ease with which they move it along.

When the ball is dry, the bugs, usually two in number, commence rolling it to a suitable place of deposit, which is not, apparently, selected in advance. Whether these two bugs are the parents or not is unknown, but at any rate one places himself in the front, with his hind feet on the ground and the others on the ball, while the other goes in the rear, with his body reversed—that is, his four front legs are planted firmly on the ground, with his head bent low in the dust, while his hinder parts are raised high on the ball, which he pushes with the two remaining legs and the extremity of the body.

The duty of the bug in front seems to be either to guide the ball or to pull it forward, possibly both. Although he has the most natural position, and seems to have less to do than the other bug, he really has the harder time, for when the ball gets rolling down a slope it frequently goes over him entirely, or pushes him sprawling by the way-side. But he is soon on his feet again, and scrambling into place, makes believe he is having the jolliest time in the world.

If obstructions occur in the path, the tumble-bug is not easily discouraged. You may frighten him away, or even push him aside with your stick, but if you keep quiet for a few moments he will return to his work. If a tuft of grass or a stone intervene, he leaves his work and goes in search of help, and his comrades rarely fail to respond. If, however, after repeated efforts to move it, the bugs leave their ball in despair, it often happens that a new party comes across it and rolls it merrily to its destination. The whole community seem to take an interest in every ball, and are willing to do their utmost to help it along.

When a suitable place is found, which may be several yards from where the ball was made, one bug remains with it, while the other excavates a little hole for its reception. When the hole is about the depth of the ball, the latter is rolled in, and then both bugs get underneath, and while they are excavating and pushing the dirt one side, the ball gradually follows them downward, sinking by its own weight. This hole is sometimes two or three feet deep.

When the egg hatches, the larva, or grub, lives upon the contents of the ball until the supply of food is exhausted, when it makes its way to the surface of the ground, and there, by some unknown process, forms and places itself inside a cocoon of oval shape, and of similar composition to the ball in which it was hatched. There it silently changes into a chrysalis, and emerges a perfect insect.

Besides the little tumble-bugs that we most commonly see, there is a larger species, found in this country and in England, called the clock or door beetle, and which is alluded to by Shakespeare where Macbeth says:

"Ere to black Hecate's summons The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums, Hath rung night's yawning peal."

Shard was the old English name of the horny outer wing of the beetle.

Another old English writer quaintly commends the tumble-bug as an example of labor, temperance, prudence, justice, modesty, and contentment. It is difficult to see how he arrived at the idea of making the tumble-bug the symbol of justice; perhaps he thought a bug having so many other virtues would have that one of necessity.

A species of tumble-bug was also sacred to Thor in the old days when that god was worshipped in Gothland, or Scandinavia. When the Christian missionaries came into the land they changed the name of the bug from "Thor's bug" to "Thor-devil," in order to turn the minds of the people from its worship. The latter name still survives in Sweden, but many a peasant, with the blood of his superstitious ancestors still in his veins, will even now set the tumble-bug on his feet when he sees him sprawling on his back, and congratulate himself that he has brought luck to his undertakings.

The sacred beetle of the Egyptians was considered to symbolize the sun, the world or habitable globe, and the goddess Neith. Many explanations are offered to account for the origin of this belief, but the most plausible are the following: The beetle represented the sun because its antennæ, or feelers, diverge from the head like the rays of the sun. Then, again, its six legs have five joints each—thirty in all—equal to the number of days in a month or in a sign of the zodiac. The beetle represented the world because it rolled balls or little orbs. These balls were fabled to be rolled from sunrise till sunset, and always in the same direction as the earth.

The goddess Neith was the supreme power in governing the works of creation. The warrior, in going forth to battle, would have the sacred beetle carved or painted on ring or bracelet, to propitiate the goddess and make him victorious. The explanation offered is that as the male and female were so hard to distinguish, they were all thought to be males, and therefore of great courage.

Plutarch tells us that the Romans adopted the beetle as a sign of victory, and had it represented on the standards of their legions.