The two sexes, equally zealous in excavating their burrows, work apart without collaboration.

This is no family mansion for the rearing of offspring; it is a temporary dwelling, made by each insect for its own benefit.
Sometimes the burrow contains nothing but the well-sinker surprised at its work: sometimes--and not rarely--the hermit will be found embracing a small subterranean fungus, entire or partly consumed.

It presses it convulsively to its bosom and will not be parted from it.

This is the insect's booty: its worldly wealth.

Scattered crumbs inform us that we have surprised the beetle at a feast.
Let us deprive the insect of its booty.