BEETLES. 367 



niaiicIiliK's. Tlie inintios of one jiortimi of tliis fmnily arc iiioslly vo^-ptablo fecrlers, 

 often livinj;' U)i(in leaves; those of anotlier jiortiou feed u]]on the exerenieiit of liin'her 

 animals; a few eat fruit, flowers, or honey, even, exeejitionally, entering bee-hives to 

 steal honey; eertain speeies also lick the sap from woumleil j)laees on trees; and a 

 very few {e.g., 7Whr) feed upon decayini;- animal matter. In their sexual rehltions, 

 some species of hunellieorns havti strange habits. J^hiplinccru bedeaui, a eommon 

 speeies iu the sand dunes of tin- Bay of Cadiz, copulates oidy during storms; at oilier 

 times the beetles remain eoiu/ealed in the sand. In JBolbuceras r/aUicus, a Frenidi 

 species, the two sexes inhabit neighboring burrows a foot dei'p in the gronnd, and the 

 male digs a passage out from his own burrow to that of the female. 1'he males of 

 I'ohjpliijlhi rariolosii, from the eastern United States, have been seen vigorously 

 scratching the ground above places where females were about to emerge from their 

 pupa% presmnably guided to them l>y the sense of smell, a sense whicli has reached a 

 high degree of develojiment in the laniellicorns. The aid which certain male dung- 

 beetles give the females in tlieir maternal duties will lie more fully noticed further on. 

 The males of lamellicorns are usually much larger than Ihc females, and are often 

 easily distinguishable from the latter by horns upon the prothorax or head, bv Ijetter- 

 develojied antenna^ or by modifications of the legs. 



The larvaj of the Scaraba'id;e .-ire rather robust, white grul.is. Their anal end is 

 curved around under their body so that tliey cannot walk on a flat surface, but are 

 only able to use their six well-develojied legs in locomotion when surrounded by the 

 sul)stances Sn which (hey li\c. The head is corneous and resistant, with four-jointed 

 antennae and without ocelli. The rest of the larva is covered with a somewliat tough 

 skin, and widens posteriorly so that the ajiical half of the abdonu'u is broader than its 

 base. All lamellicorn larva live concealed, some in the ground, feeding ujion roots, 

 others in decaying wood, in excrement, or in otln^r substances which they devour. 

 The cojirophagous species undergo their nietannirphoses rapidly, but the other lamelli- 

 corns ofteu re(iuire two or three years to pass from the egg to the imago. Several 

 nematode worms iidiabit the cajiacious digestive tract of certain lamellicorn larva?; 

 but, besides these, the larval stage of Er/i!ii<ir/ii/it<-liii.!< 'jinKs, an .■ic.anthocephalons 

 worm which lives as adult in the intestinal canal of swiiu', has been fcnind in the gruljs 

 of the E"uropean May-beetle (Meht!ont/ia ruJgarls). The swine eat tlio May-beetle 

 grubs, thus infecting themselves with worms, .and the dung of the swine furnishes the 

 May-beetle grubs the egn-s of (he worm — a curious in(ern'lationship between hog, 

 worm, and insect. The larva' of certain lamellicorns are subject also to fungus para- 

 sitism V)y species of I'on-ubia, of which the fructitication stems grow out from the 

 grubs killed by the fungus, often to the height of several inches, giving rise to stories 

 of grubs changing into plants. 



Dr. Le Conte has divided the Scaraltaidro into three sub-families, according to the 

 position of the abdominal stigmata. In the lowest sub-family, the Scarabaida^ pleu- 

 rosticti, the abiloniinal stigmata (exce]it the anteri<ir ones) are "situated in the dorsal 

 portion of the ventral segments, forming rows which diverge strougly;" the last jiair 

 of stigmata is visible l)ehind tlie elvtra. 



Osmodenna has the thorax considerably narrower than the elytra and usually 

 rounded at the sides; the posterior coxa are contiguous, and the outer lobe of the 

 maxilla is corneons. O. scabra is about 0.1) of an inch long, with a roughened but 

 shining eojijiery or l)rownisli-black surface. Its lai'v.-i lives in decaying i-osaceous 

 wood, and jmpates in an oval cocoon made by cementing t(igether fragments of the 



