When this is attained, the owner commences to excavate a chamber for the reception of the ball; sometimes the false friend takes advantage of the opportunity thus offered and carries off the ball for her own use. Should no disappointment of this sort occur, the _Scarabaeus_ accomplishes the burying of the ball in its subterranean chamber, and accompanies it for the purpose of devouring it; the feast is continued without intermission till the food is entirely {197}exhausted, when the _Scarabaeus_ seeks a fresh store of provender to be treated in a similar manner. According to M. Fabre's account these events occur in the spring of the year, and when the hot weather sets in the _Scarabaeus_ passes through a period of quiescence, emerging again in the autumn to recommence its labours, which are now, however, directed immediately to the continuance of the species; a larger subterranean chamber is formed, and to this retreat the beetle carries dung till it has accumulated a mass of the size of a moderate apple; this material is carefully arranged, previous to the laying of the egg, in such a manner that the grub to be hatched from the egg shall find the softest and most nutritive portions close to it, while the coarser and more innutritious parts are arranged so as to be reached by the grub only after it has acquired some strength; lastly, a still more delicate and nutritive paste is prepared by the mother beetle for a first meal for the newly-hatched grub, by some of the food being submitted to a partial digestion in her organs; finally, the egg is deposited in the selected spot, and the chamber closed. Certain of the Coprides exhibit, according to Fabre, some extremely exceptional features in their life-histories. The mother, instead of dying after oviposition, survives, and sees the growth of her young to the perfect state, and then produces another generation. No similar case can be pointed out in Insects, except in the Social kinds; but from these the Coprides observed by Fabre differ profoundly, inasmuch as the number of eggs produced by the mother is extremely small; _Copris hispanus_, for instance, producing in each of its acts of oviposition only one, two, or three eggs. [Illustration: Fig. 89—_Scarabaeus sacer._ Portugal.]