FAMILY GEOTRUPID.E. 67 



Gcotrupida'. 



Geotrupes . - (Plate xii, fig. 2.) 



Color brilliant stocl-hlue ; beneath, clothed with yellowish brown hairs. Clypcus rough, 



with a central pointed tubercle (the thin eJge of the clypeus is turned up in front) ; 



thorax smooth ami shining upon its top, but confluently punctured at the margins ; 



elytra marked with numerous punctate ridges. Length live-tenths of an inch. 



This species I have been unable to refer to its proper name. " 1 he G. microp/iagus is 



<lark piceous above and beneath, and the legs are violaceous." 



Geotrupes splendidi's. ( Plate xii, fig. 3.) 



Splendent green; purplish beneath. Thorax ratlier thickly punctured, and confluent on 

 the sides ; scutellum smooth, or with two or more punctures ; elytra subtuberculated 

 near the outer basal angle, angle somewhat rounded, and their .surfaces are marked 

 by rounded ridges punctate in the grooves : body beneath clothed with brown hairs. 

 Length six-tenths of an inch. 



Genus COPROBIUS ( L.\tr.). 

 Body ovoid ^ thorax dilated in the middle ; scutellum none ; abdomen nearly square ; 

 clypeus Iiidentieulated. 



CoPROBIUS LjEVIS. 



Medium size : color dull black, finely punctured ; elytral lines obsolete. The insect has a 

 submetallic hue in some lights, but is generally dull. There are about eight obscure 

 lines upon each clytrum : beneath, the lx)dy is naked, or destitute of hairs. 

 Tliis insect is more common here than the Geotrupes. Common in June and July, when 



they may be seen engaged in rolling a ball of dung containing their ova, and which they 



finally bury. 



Ateucuus sacer is a much larger insect, 1>eli>nging to an allied genus, and is the sacred 

 Scarabceus which entered so largely into the mythology of Egypt. 



All these species fulfil an important place in the economy of creation ; a fact which is 

 more obvious in tropical regions than in the north. 



