COLEOPTERA. 46 1 



•that this people, in adopting the scaraboeus as a reHgious symbol, 



wished to represent at once, a unique birth — a father — the world 



a man. The u?iique birth means that the scarabseus has no mother. 

 A male wishing to procreate, said the Egyptians, takes the dung of 

 an ox, works it up into a ball, and gives it the shape of the world, 

 rolls it with its hind legs from east to west, and places it in the 

 ground, where it remains twenty-eight days ; the twenty-ninth day it 

 throws its ball, now open, into the water, and there comes forth a 

 male scarabaeus. This explanation shows also why the scarabseus 

 was employed to represent at the sam.e time a father, a man, and the 

 world. There were, however, according to the same author, three 

 sorts of Scarab(zi: one was in the shape of a cat, and threw out 

 brightly shining rays (probably the Golden Scarabaeus, Ateuchus 

 ^^gyptionim) ; the two others had horns ; their description seems to 

 refer to a Copris and a Geotrupes. 



As other remarkable species of Scarabcei we represent the 

 Scarabceiis enema (Fig. 441), with strong horns, the Megaceriis 

 chorinceus (Fig. 443), the Megalosoma anubis (Figs. 444 and 445), 

 and the Dynastes Hercules (Fig. 446). 



The last family of the Scarabceidce contains the L2icanidce, or Stag 

 Beetles. These Coleoptera are of great size, and their head is armed 

 with enormous robust mandibles, which give them a ferocious air, 

 which their inoffensive habits do not in any way justify. They live 

 in half-rotten trees, the destruction of which they accelerate. Their 

 mandibles, of such prodigious size only in the male, are of more 

 inconvenience to them than they are of use, as they impede their 

 flight. Their strength enables them to raise considerable weights, 

 but they make no other use of them than to show their strength, 

 which is enormous. They do not attack other insects, and live only 

 on vegetable juices. 



The common Stag Beetle (Figs. 447* and 448) attains to a length 

 of two inches, or more, including its mandibles, and is of a dark 

 brown chestnut colour. They are met with during the months of May, 

 June, and July, in large forests, climbing along trees and hooking 

 themselves on to the trunks by their mandibles. Charles De Geer 

 says that the Stag Beetle imbibes the honeyed liquid which is found 

 on oak trees, a tree it particularly seeks after, which has caused it to 



* The figure may possibly mislead, as it shows the larva and pupa in the 

 ground, for although recent observations show that this species does occasionally 

 undergo its metamorphoses therein, it is not probable that the larva lives any- 

 where but in wood. — Ed. 



