Chapter 13 Homemade Insect Records Spanish Rhinoceros Head

I hope you remember the sacred beetle, which spends its time making a ball that serves as both food and the basis of a pear-shaped nest. I have already pointed out the advantages and disadvantages of this shape for the little beetle, because the circle is the best shape, and will preserve the food so that it does not dry out or harden. After long observation of the work of this beetle, I began to suspect that my instinct to praise it so much had been miscalculated.Do they really care about their little larvae, and provide them with the softest and most suitable food?Beetle making balls is their own profession!Isn't it strange that it continues to be a ball in the ground?An animal has long, curved legs, with which it is convenient to roll a ball around on the ground.No matter where you are, you naturally want to engage in a career you like.You must do the work you want to do well. Only in this way can you survive in nature, reproduce in nature, and survive from generation to generation.

It doesn't care for its own larvae, and perhaps it's just a coincidence that it makes a pear-shaped shell. In order to solve this difficult problem satisfactorily, I have also observed a road-scavenging beetle which, in its daily work, was very unfamiliar with ball-making.However, when it came time to lay eggs, it suddenly changed its previous habits and made all the food it had stored into round balls.This shows that this is not just a habit, but really cares about its larvae, so it chooses a round ball as its nest. Today, near where I live, there is such a beetle.It is the prettiest and largest of the beetles.Although not as burly as the holy beetle, its name is - the Spanish rhinoceros head.

Its most striking and special features are the steep slope of its chest and the long horns on its head. The beetle is round and short, and certainly not well suited for the movements of the holy beetle.It doesn't have enough legs for a ball.When it was disturbed a little bit, its legs instinctively curled up under its body. It didn't look like a brave man, nor did it have the spirit of a brave man like the holy beetle. They are nothing like tools for rolling projectiles, and their underdeveloped appearance, which indicates their lack of excavation, is enough to make it clear that it cannot walk with a rolling ball.

Indeed, Rhino's character is very inactive.Once, at night, or under the moonlight at dusk, it found food and dug a cave at the original spot.Its digging is very sloppy, and its largest can only hide an apple. Here, it gradually piled up the food and ingredients it had just found, at least up to the entrance of the cave. Its large amount of food will be piled up into a shapeless pile, which is enough to prove the gluttony, gluttony and gluttony of this rhino head.As long as the food can be eaten, it will stay under the ground for as long as it can, until the stored food is eaten up. After it ate all the stored food, its food warehouse was empty, and it ran out again to find fresh food, and then dug another cave, repeating its stored and eaten food. Then come out to find the periodic motion.

In truth, it is nothing more than a scavenger, a collector of manure.In short, it has no special ability, it is a mediocre bug. For the technique of kneading the ball, it obviously shows a special layman.Moreover, its short and clumsy legs are extremely unsuitable for such technical work. Between May and June, it's time to lay eggs, and this insect has become very good at choosing the softest material, choosing the most comfortable environment, and laying a good environment for it to lay eggs smoothly. It began to make food for its family, whenever it could find it in one place, and if it thought it best, it immediately buried it in the ground, it never traveled, it never carried, it never did any additive work, It is also never reprocessed.

I saw, however, that the burrow was dug more generously and more elaborately than the temporary burrow in which it fed itself. I think it is very difficult to carefully observe some living habits of the rhinoceros head and its growth process in such a wild environment, so I put it in my insect house later, so that I can It can be observed more carefully and carefully.This provides a lot of convenience for myself. At first the poor insect, being a little timid at my captivity, thought, perhaps, that catastrophe was at hand.After it has made the cave, when it goes in and out of the cave by itself, it is still in fear, lest it will be hurt again.However, since then, it has gradually become bolder, and overnight, it stored all the food I provided it.

At the end of a week, I dug up the dirt in the insect house.I found that the cave where it stored food I had seen appeared. This is a large hall, a large warehouse.Its roof is not very neat, its walls are also very ordinary, and its floor is almost flat. In one corner, find a round hole, and from here lead to a sloping corridor that leads down to the dirt.The house--the villa of the insect--is a big hole dug in fresh earth.Its walls have been carefully pressed and decorated.This is enough to resist the earthquake caused by my experiment.And it's easy to see how this insect, with all its skills, spared no effort, used all its burrowing power, to make a permanent home.But its dining room is just a hole in the earth, and the walls are not so strong.

When it is engaged in the construction of this large building, I think its husband, or its mate will definitely come to help it, at least I often see it stays in a cave with its husband.I also believe that this help will make his wife more industrious, and husband and wife can collect and store food together.Because it is naturally much faster for a husband and wife to do one thing and one job at the same time, at least it is much faster than doing things alone, but when the house is full and enough for it to live, its husband will also retired.The husband ran back to the ground and settled down elsewhere.The work and responsibilities it should do to this family are all over, and it has fulfilled the responsibilities that a husband should do, thus ending its obligations to this family.

So, what did I see in the earthen hut where a lot of food was put down?Is it a big pile of little clods, stacked on top of each other?But nothing is right.It's not actually what it looks like.I only saw a single large clod, and except for a small path, the house where the food was stored was completely filled. This kind of round pile has no definite shape, some are as big as Tushou chicken eggs, and some are like ordinary onions.Some are almost perfectly round.It reminds me of that round cheese from Holland.Some are round and have a slightly protruding upper part.Either way, however, the surface is smooth and presents delicate curves.

The mother worked tirelessly to bring many, many materials one at a time, collected them together and kneaded them into a big ball.It does this by breaking up these many little heaps, bringing them together, kneading them, and trampling them at the same time.Several times I have seen it on top of this giant sphere.Of course, this ball is much larger than the one made by the holy beetle, which is only a small projectile when compared with each other.It also sometimes lingers on a convex surface about four inches in diameter, knocking it, patting it, beating it, kneading it, sucking it, making it firm and flat.Only once had I seen such a novel landscape, and only once.What a rare opportunity!But as soon as it saw me, it immediately rolled down the curved slope and disappeared.It found that what it was doing had been noticed, completely revealing its identity and target, so it ran away.

I owe it to a row of glass bottles covered with ink paper, and here I find many interesting things. First, I found that the carving process of this large ball - which is often very neat, regardless of the difference in the degree of inclination - is not formed by the method of rubbing. In fact, I already knew that such a large volume could never roll into this almost full hole.And the insect's strength is not strong enough to move such a large pile. Every time I go to the bottle to observe, the evidence I get is the same. I often see the female worm crawling to the top of the ball, looking here, then there, this way, then there , it tapped and patted lightly, trying to make it as smooth as possible, as if it had never seen it intending to move the ball. Facts have clearly proved that the method of rolling the ball is not used. Finally it's ready.It is like a baker dividing a dough into many, many small pieces, each of which will become bread in the future.This rhinoceros beetle does the same.It uses the sharp edge of its head and the sharp teeth of its front paws to cut a circular slit, and randomly cuts a small piece from a large piece.When doing this job, I didn't hesitate at all, and I didn't repeat it.It never adds a little here, or takes a little away there.Straightforward, just one cut and it gets the proper piece. Secondly, how to make the ball have a certain shape.It was trying to hold the ball between those short arms, making it look so unfit for the job, that it was lumped with pressure.It dignifiedly and solemnly climbed up and down on the shapeless piece of food, crawled to the left, crawled to the right, crawled forward, crawled backward, kept crawling, patiently touched again and again, and finally passed through twenty After more than four hours of work, the angular thing finally became round, the size of a ripe plum. In its small technical operating room, there is hardly any room for a free turn.The squat artist did the job without shaking its base.But after considerable time and endurance it turned out to be a perfectly proper ball.Given such clumsy tools and limited status, this seemed impossible. It rubbed the surface of the ball with its feet affectionately, and after a long time, it was finally satisfied.Then it climbed up to the top of the dome and pressed slowly, making a shallow hole, and in this basin-like hole it laid an egg. So, with great care, it closed the edges of the box to cover the egg it had laid, and squeezed the edges up to make it slightly tapered and protruding.Finally, the ball is made into an oval shape. The insect then proceeds to work on a second small piece, made in exactly the same way.For the rest, make the third and fourth again. Of course, you remember that the holy beetle only makes a pear-shaped nest in a very familiar way. There are three or four egg-shaped balls hidden in its cave, one close to the other, and the combination and arrangement are very regular, and the small ends are all facing upwards. After its long work, one would have thought that it, too, had come out to seek its own food, like the holy beetle.But that's not the case, it doesn't do that.It didn't run out, nor did it look for food, but stood there motionless, and since it got into the ground, it hasn't eaten any food. It is as selfless as any mother in the universe. dedication.There is only love, care and sacrifice for one's own children. It doesn't, and it won't touch the food it has prepared for its children.It would rather starve itself, would rather suffer by itself, and does not want its little larva to feel a little pain in the future. This is such a great dedication: in the world of insects, it also fully embodies that maternal love is the greatest. The reason it doesn't go out is, of course, to guard the cradles these few built for their children.Because this is one of the basic conditions for the survival of this family.This is their house, their cottage, the only shelter they have in the world.So take care of it carefully. The sacred beetle's pear was damaged by the mother's departure, and the pear burst open shortly after the mother left.After a rather long period of time, it loses its shape, and just like that, a home is destroyed. But the eggs of this beetle can be preserved well and for a long time, because it has the mother's care and love, and the mother's sense of responsibility, so that their eggs can be preserved in good condition. It runs from one to the other, and from the other to the other, looking at them and listening to them, lest there be any mistake in them, or some foreign invasion.Just like a human mother cares for the baby in her arms, she cares for every possible thing.This little beetle is such a good mother. It repairs one place, and then another, for fear that its little larva will be disturbed or insulted by outsiders.Our eyes can't see any shortcomings. Although it is clumsy, has horns and feet, it is actually more sensitive in the dark than our eyesight in daylight, and we can see clearly. We can feel this. arrive.At the slightest break, he would run over and mend it hastily, lest the air get in and kill his eggs. It runs in and out of the narrow aisle in the cradle, in order to protect its eggs. It observes carefully and patrols carefully. If we disturb it and destroy its normal life, it will immediately press the tip of its body against the wingtip shell. The edge of the mouth made a soft rustling sound, like a sound of peace, but also like a strong protest. That's what it is, painstakingly caring for its cradle.Sometimes it is really sleepy, and it will sleep next to it for a while, but the time will not be too long, it will just take a nap for a while, and it will never sleep peacefully.This is how this mother guards her eggs, makes selfless dedication to her offspring, and breaks her heart for her children. Rhinoceros is in the basement, with a characteristic rare in insects, and that is the joy of taking care of its own family.What a great maternal love this is!This is the pride of a devotee. It's in the gap I made.Hear its larva crawling inside its shell, striving for freedom.When the little prisoner straightened his legs, bent his waist, and wanted to push away the ceiling that was pressing on his head, his mother would realize that the little larva was growing up day by day, and it was time to live independently and go to the world by itself. It's been a while.The little larva came out by itself to feel the beauty of freedom and life. Since it has the ability to build and repair, why can't it be broken?However, I can't say for sure because I haven't seen anything like this happen.Perhaps it can be said that this female worm is locked in a glass bottle from which she cannot escape, so she has been guarding the nest because she has no freedom of action.However, if so, isn't it anxious about friction work and long-term observation?The work obviously came naturally to him, forming a part of his life to which he was accustomed. If it is eager to regain freedom, it will of course have to climb up and down in the bottle, busy endlessly.However, I only see that it is often very calm and stays very peacefully beside its ball. In order to get the exact first-hand information, and to get the exact truth, I went to check the phenomenon in the glass bottle at any time. If it wants to rest, it can burrow into the sand at will, hide its body everywhere, and if it needs food and drink, it can come out to get fresh food, but neither rest, nor sunlight and food, can let it leave itself. family moment.It just sits there until the last ball bursts open. I often see it always sits next to the cradle. I am very moved by the quietness and the sense of responsibility on the shoulders. For about four months, it didn't eat any food, and it was not as greedy as it was when it first took care of the family. At this time, it has amazing self-control for sitting and guarding for a long time. A hen lays on her eggs and forgets to eat for several weeks before her eggs turn into chicks, but a rhinoceros forgets to eat for a third of a year. Summer is over.Humans and livestock alike had hoped for some rain, and when it finally came, there was a deep pool of water on the ground. So we have cool climates to revive it after our hot, dry, life-threatening summers in the Browins. The heather opened its red bell-shaped flowers, the squills burst into spike-shaped flowers, the strawberry tree's coral-colored fruit was already beginning to soften, and the holy beetle and rhinoceros split their outer shells and ran to the ground. Come up and enjoy the last few days of the year. The newly liberated rhino family, together with their mother, gradually came to the ground.There are about three or four, and the most is five. Male rhinos have relatively long horns, which can be easily distinguished. The rhinoceros head of the mother is difficult to distinguish from the mother.Therefore, it is easy to confuse them. Soon another sudden change took place.The mother who sacrificed everything in the past no longer cares so much about the interests of the family. Since then they have each managed their own home and their own interests.They do not correspond to each other. The present indifference of the female beetle to her family should not, therefore, make us forget her four months of painstaking care of the family, to get rid of the interference and encroachment of bees, wasps, ants, etc. from outside.No other insect that I know of is capable of raising its own offspring and caring for their health until they are adults. Alone and without outside help, it provides each child with a cradle of food, and mends it carefully so that it does not break, and makes the cradle very safe.This is the selfless dedication of a mother. Its emotions are so strong and persistent that it loses all desires and needs for food and drink. For four months it nurses its flesh and blood in the darkness of its cave.Carefully watch over its eggs. It will never resume the joyful life of the outdoors until its children are freed. We find the most profound example of the maternal instinct in the foolish scavenger of the field, and cannot but feel infinite respect for this little insect.