CHAPTER V HEREDITY

Facts which I have set forth elsewhere prove that certain dung
beetles' make an exception to the rule of paternal indifference--a
general rule in the insect world--and know something of domestic
cooperation. The father works with almost the same zeal as the
mother in providing for the settlement of the family. Whence do
these favored ones derive a gift that borders on morality?

One might suggest the cost of installing the youngsters. Once they
have to be furnished with a lodging and to be left the wherewithal
to live, is it not an advantage, in the interests of the race, that
the father should come to the mother's assistance? Work divided
between the two will ensure the comfort which solitary work, its
strength overtaxed, would deny. This seems excellent reasoning;
but it is much more often contradicted than confirmed by the facts.
Why is the Sisyphus a hard working paterfamilias and the sacred
beetle an idle vagabond? And yet the two pill rollers practice the
same industry and the same method of rearing their young. Why does
the Lunary Copris know what his near kinsman, the Spanish Copris,
does not? The first assists his mate, never forsakes her. The
second seeks a divorce at an early stage and leaves the nuptial
roof before the children's rations are massed and kneaded into
shape. Nevertheless, on both sides, there is the same big outlay
on a cellarful of egg-shaped pills, whose neat rows call for long
and watchful supervision. The similarity of the produce leads one
to believe in similarity of manners; and this is a mistake.