A little later, and I find another empty relic; then another, and yet another, until the population of my menagerie is rapidly shrinking.

If this insensate massacre continues I shall soon find my cage depopulated.
Are my beetles hoary with age?
Do they die a natural death, and do the survivors then clean out the bodies?
Or is the population being reduced at the expense of sound and healthy insects?
It is not easy to elucidate the matter, since the atrocities are commonly perpetrated in the night.
But, finally, with vigilance, on two occasions, I surprise the beetles at their work in the light of day.
Towards the middle of June a female attacks a male before my eyes.

The male is recognisable by his slightly smaller size.

The operation commences.

Raising the ends of the wing-covers, the assailant seizes her victim by the extremity of the abdomen, from the dorsal side.