SCARAB^ID^ — DUNG-BEETLES. 27 



is recommended by the same author, in pains of the ears, if 

 dropped into them,^ 



The Cossus of the Greeks and Romans, which, at the 

 time of the greatest hixury among the latter, was intro- 

 duced at the tables of the rich, was the larva, or grub, of a 

 large beetle that lives in the stems of trees, particularly the 

 oak; and was, most probably, the larva of the Stag-beetle, 

 Lucanus cervus. On this subject, however, entomologists 

 differ very widely, for it has been supposed the larva of the 

 Calandra palmarum by Geoflfroy and Keferotein ; of the 

 Prionus damicornis by Drury ; but of the Lucanus cervus 

 by Roesel, Scopoli, and most others. The first two, being 

 neither natives of Italy nor inhabiting the oak, are out of 

 the question. But the larva of the Lucanus cervus, and 

 perhaps also the Prionus coriarius, which are found in the 

 oak as well as in other trees, may each have been eaten un- 

 der this name, as their difference could not be discernible 

 either to collectors or cooks. Linnaeus, following the 

 opinion of Ray, supposed the caterpillar of the great Goat- 

 moth to be the cossus.^ 



Pliny tells us that the epicures, who looked upon these 

 cossi as delicacies, even fed them with meal, in order to 

 fatten them.^ 



Our children, who call the Stag-beetles and the Passalus 

 cornutus, oxen, are wont to hitch them with threads to 

 chips and small sticks, and, for their amusement, make them 

 drag the wood along as if they were oxen. 



Scarabaeidae — Dung-beetles. 



The Coprion, Cantharus, and Heliocantharus of the an- 

 cients were evidently the Scarabaeus (Ateuchus) pilurarius, 

 or, as it is commonly called, the Tumble-dung, or one nearly 

 related to it, for it is described as rolling backward large 



1 James' Med. Diet. Cf. Brookes' Nat. Hist, of Ins., p. 321. 



2 Amoreiix, p. 154. Burmeister's Manl. of Entomol., p. 561. Ke- 

 ferot. Uber den unmittelbaren Nutzen der Insekten, Erfurt, 1829, 4to, 

 p. 8-10. Kirb. and Sp. Introd., i. 303, note. Shaw's ZooL, vi. 28, 

 note. 



3 Nat. Hist., xvii. 37. 



