Although the Burying Beetles (Necrophorus) live an isolated life,
generally speaking, they know how to call for help when it is needed,
and their appeals for assistance never go unheeded. As is well known,
they must have some decaying organic matter to lay their eggs in,
thus providing their larvæ with food. But the food must not decay too
rapidly, and in order to slow up the process of decay the Beetles bury
the corpses of all kinds of small animals.
Occasionally they find the corpse of a Bird or Mouse, which is too
heavy for them to “handle” unaided. They thereupon call on their fellow
Beetles for assistance, and from four to ten Beetles respond. Uniting
their efforts they transport, if necessary, the corpse to a suitable
soft ground, where together they bury it. When Gladitsch attached a
dead Bird to a cross made out of two sticks, or suspended a Toad to
a stick planted in the soil, “the little Beetles would in the same
friendly way combine their intelligence to overcome the artifice of
Man.” The same evidence of intelligent mutual aid has been noticed
among the Dung-beetles.