298 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE 



and some, but a much smaller number, in imitation of A. 

 laticollis, but all the figures with striate elytra have A. 

 Egyptiorum for their type. Thus the Scarahwus of the Egyp- 

 tians is refenible to three different species, which, after all, are 

 very much alike, and probably possess an economy perfectly 

 identical, but which are readily and with certainty to be distin- 

 guished in the sculptured figures.' A. sacer is black, and seems 

 to have been more common than A. Eqijptiorum, which is of a 

 golden green colour, and would appear to have been the 

 insect imitated by the artists of Lower Egypt, whilst A. Egyp- 

 tiorum furnished the model for the sculptors of Upper Egypt. 

 M. Caillaud found this insect in Senaar, not in Egypt. How- 

 ever, he found elytra and some other parts of this insect in 

 mummy cases, entombed in Egypt ; from which it would 

 appear that it formerly existed in that country, and possibly 

 does so even at the present day. Aristotle and Aristophanes 

 have both used the word Cantharis to designate the sacred Sca- 

 rabceus. I therefore infer, that both intended A. Egyptiorum 

 of M. Caillaud. 



This first kind of Scarabanis of which Pliny speaks, is, I 

 think, the first also of the three species mentioned by Horus 

 Apollo, as being held in great veneration by the Egyptians. 



The second kind o^ ScarahcLus, employed as an amulet for the 

 cure of the quartan ague, is made use of, Pliny says, by the 

 magicians, and must be picked up with the left hand. It has 

 small bent horns, cui sunt cornicula reflexa. 



From this description Hardouin, and other commentators 

 after him, erroneously consider this insect to have been a 

 Lucanus. 



The Lucanus, vulgarly called the stag-beetle, is an insect of 

 which Pliny has given a most correct description, and the name 

 which he assigned it has on this account been retained by sub- 

 sequent naturalists. He mentions its long mandibles, forked 

 at the extremity, and armed with teeth ; and he relates a 

 custom then prevalent of suspending these mandibles, or, as he 

 terms them, horns, round the necks of children, as a preser- 

 vative against the bites of venomous animals — ^' Cornua pralonga 



' Compare Olivier, Col., vol. i.. No. 3, p. 150, No. 183. pi. 8, f. 59, var. B. His 

 var. A. is another insect : it has a scutellum between the elytra, and the form of 

 its elytra is ditTerent. Schon. Syn. Ins. vol. i. p. 18 ; Cail. Voyage il Mcro'c et a 

 Fleuvc Blanc, vol. iv. p. 272 ; At. d' Hist. Nat. et d'Aiit. ii. 58, p. 10. 



'' PI., Hist. Anim. lib. xii. c. 34. 



