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.  She pulls at him furiously, eagerly munching with her mandibles.  The victim, who is in the prime of life, does not defend himself, nor turn upon his assailant.  He pulls his hardest in the opposite direction to free himself from those terrible fangs; he advances and recoils as he is overpowered by or overpowers the assassin; and there his resistance ends.  The struggle lasts a quarter of an hour.  Other beetles, passing by, call a halt, and seem to say “My turn next!” Finally, redoubling his efforts, the male frees himself and flies.  If he had not succeeded in escaping the ferocious female would undoubtedly have eviscerated him.

[Illustration:  THE GOLDEN GARDENER:  THE MATING SEASON OVER, THE MALES ARE EVISCERATED BY THE FEMALES.]

A few days later I witness a similar scene, but this time the tragedy is played to the end.  Once more it is a female who seizes a male from behind.  With no other protest except his futile efforts to escape, the victim is forced to submit.  The skin finally yields; the wound enlarges, and the viscera are removed and devoured by the matron, who empties the carapace, her head buried in the body of her late companion.  The legs of the miserable victim tremble, announcing the end.  The murderess takes no notice; she continues to rummage as far as she can reach for the narrowing of the thorax.  Nothing is left but the closed boat-shaped wing-covers and the fore parts of the body.  The empty shell is left lying on the scene of the tragedy.

In this way must have perished the beetles—­always males—­whose remains I find in the cage from time to time; thus the survivors also will perish.  Between the middle of June and the 1st of August the inhabitants of the cage, twenty-five in number at the outset, are reduced to five, all of whom are females.  All the males, to the number of twenty, have disappeared, eviscerated and completely emptied.  And by whom?  Apparently by the females.

That this is the case is attested in the first place by the two assaults of which I was perchance the witness; on two occasions, in broad daylight, I saw the female devouring the male, having opened the abdomen under the wing-covers, or having at least attempted to do so.  As for the rest of the massacres, although direct observation was lacking, I had one very valuable piece of evidence.  As we have seen, the victim does not retaliate, does not defend himself, but simply tries to escape by pulling himself away.