684 [Vol.

3,

192. Interesting Instincts of Gymnopleurus sinnatus.

By Hikokuro HONDA.

Manchuria Educational College, Mukden.

(Rec. Nov. 17, 1927. Comm. by A. OKA, M.I.A., Dec. 12, 1927.)

In South Manchuria, Gymnopleurus sinnatus Fab. is common and

two individuals of this insect make a ball of dung and industriously
roll it about often in a furrow or wheel-track on a road. This beetle is
a subject of nature-study at the primary schools in Manchuria. Until
the present work wasdone it has been, however, an open question,
whether the pair of the tumble-bugs, which work together, is a male
anda female or whether there exists any sexual relation between
them.
The most noted tumble-bug is Scarabaeus sacer, which was con
sidered sacred by the ancient Egyptians. Its images, carved in stone,
have been found in Egyptian tombs. This sacred beetle does not
always push the ball alone, sometimes a pair of this insect roll a ball
together.
Fabre (1876), as was formerly believed, at first thought a male and
a female were working together to make provision for their progeny.
By dissecting he found, contrary to his expectation, that veryoften
they were of the same sex.
Fabre worked on two species of Gymnopleurus, G.pilularius Fab.
and G. fllagelatus Fab., which occurin France. In these species the
female makes a ball and rolls it to a place where it is to be buried.
She pushes it with her hind-legs in the air and her head down ; the
male does not help the female in rolling it.
G. sinnatus of Manchuria, as stated above, rolls a ball in pairs.
This species, as other tumble-bugs, shows no striking secondary sexual
characters, by which we can distinguish easily the male from the
female. The writer, therefore, dissected some individuals of this
insect to see whether the pair rolling a ball is a male and a female.
In the male the testis is a group of small spherical bodies, which
is found in the abdomenimmediately below the sternum. In the
female, there is only one ovary, which consistsof a single ovarian
No. 10.] Interesting Instincts of Cymnopleurus sinnatus. 685

tube, on the left side, and the right ovary is degenerated . From these
facts we can reasonablysuppose that the female of this species does
not produce so many eggs as in thecase of other insects , which have
many ovarian tubes in the ovaries.
When I began the present work I was not familiar with the
reproductive organs of Coleoptera. Testisand ovaries , therefore,
werefixed and sections were made to make sure of my observations.
These were then studied under the microscope.
To determine whether a male and a female are working together,
two individuals rolling a ball were placed in a test-tube, and the puller
was tied with string. Last year I dissected 52 pairs collectedin this
way. In every case the puller was male, and the pusher was
female. To confirm these results, this summer, I collected 15 pairs
and examined them.As the cases of last year, the male in each pair
was the puller and the female was thepusher. From these results
and other observations, which will be given later on, it seems to me
that in this species a male and a femalework together, and that the
male is the puller and the female is the pusher. In generalthe male
is larger than the female. In some pairs, however, males were
smaller. Difference in size is not, therefore, a definite criterion to
distinguish the male fromthe female. There are also cases in which
males and females are of the same size.
According to Fabre (1918) the sacred beetle bury themselves in
the cool earth when the summer comes, and reappear with the first
autumn rains. Gymnopleurus pilularius and Gymnopleurus flagellates,
which were studied byFabre, have the same habits, the same fields
of operation, and the same nesting-period, as the sacred beetle.
Gymnopleurus sinnatus appears in May, and worksindustriously
even during the hot days of summer. This species does not seem to
bury itself in the earth in summer. It is just as skillful in making
balls of dung as other tumble-bugs. It makes the balls with the front
legs and jaws.
During the conveyance of balls, this insect at any time may meet
robbers, with whom it has to fightin order to keep the balls.
To see the fighting of tumble-bugs is very interesting. They bite
with their jaws and pushvigorously with their front legs ; they are
very brave in fighting. When one member of the pair is fighting with
a robber, the other does not assist its partner. If cne of the owners
of the ball be beaten, and quits, the conqueror takes its place. Then
the conqueror and the other remaining owner will roll the ball along
quite peaceably together.
686 H. HONDA. [Vol. 3,

So far as my observations go, it seems to me that when a male

robber comes the male owner fights, and when a female attempts to
steal theball the female owner fights. In other wordsthe fight for
possession of balls always occurs between individuals of the same sex.
In one case I observed that the male owner fought with the robber
twenty times, but won only six combats. In the final struggle he was
beaten and went away. The battle field was on the ball, so when the
fight was ended, it was damaged badly. The female owner and the
conqueror, therefore, wentaway and left the damaged ball behind.
Balls, which mated pairs of beetles of this species roll along, do
not contain eggs, as in the caseof those of other tumble-bugs. This
insect does not seem to mind rolling a ball on a slope ; itmay rather
have an inclination to do so. Rolling a ball on a slope may be safer
than on level ground, since there is less danger on the former of being
trodden underfootby higher animals, whilethey are working with
a ball.
Sometimes the female stops pushing the ball andseeks after a
good place to bury it. During her absence the male keeps watch over
the ball.I have not observed any case, in which thepuller tried to
seek a place to bury the ball. As already stated, I was able to show
by dissection that the pusher was the female, and that the puller was
the male. Observations on the behavior of the pushers and pullers
mentioned above, seem to show that the pullers are of different sex
from the pushers. And as already stated, all pushers, which I dis
sected,were females, and all pullers were males. More detailed
accounts and observations on laying eggs will be given in a later
article.