76 



LAMELLICORN-BEETLES. 



rapid drying of the enclosed moist material, they finally bury it 

 in the ground. The male now leaves, and the female eats out a 

 cavity in the ball, in which she deposits an enormously large and 

 soft egg; this done, she again closes the cavity by plastering the 

 removed portion of the dung over it. The egg soon hatches, and 

 in a very short time the larva is fully grown, and transforms to 

 a pupa. The whole period of growth takes less than fourteen 

 days. The illustration (Fig. 81, plate i) shows the ball, egg and 

 adults of one of these beetles (Canthon laevis Drury). 



Tumble-bugs were well known to the ancient Egyptians, who 

 held one species of them, the Sacred Beetle (Fig. 82), in high ven- 

 eration. They considered it a symbol of strength and resurrec- 

 tion, and for this reason stone imitations of the beetles were placed 

 in the tombs with their dead. "The ball, which the beetles were 

 supposed to roll from sunrise to sunset, represented the earth ; the 

 beetle itself personified the sun, because of the sharp projections 

 on its head, which extended out like the rays of light ; while the 



Fig. 83. — Ateuchus variolosus. rolling balls. Egyptian sculptures of Sacred 

 beetle. After Brehm. 



