COLEOPTERA. — PETALOCERA. 197 



Mr. MacLeay doubts, considering it to be of" Etruscan origin, adding, 

 that it may have been obtained from the Greek rTKapi(paoi.i(u, the 

 verb ciatTKapcfijaai being properly applied to the actions of animals 

 which scratch or dig up the earth with their claws. Pliny* ac- 

 cordingly gave a ^larticular description of the sacred beetle of the 

 Egyptians under the name of Scarabseus ; and, in later times, Linnteus 

 applied it in a general manner to the whole of the Lamellicorn beetles, 

 {jlacing the gigantic cornuted species (Hercules, (ic.) at the head of 

 the genus. Geoffrey, considering that the dung-rolling beetles con- 

 stituted a distinct genus, applied to them the name of Copris, although 

 it is evident that in strictness the name of Scaraba^us ought to have 

 been retained for these, and another name given to the remainder of 

 the LinntEan Scaraba3i. Fabricius introduced still further confusion, 

 giving Weber's name of Ateuchus to the sacred beetles, Geoffroy's 

 name of Copris to some other dung-beetles, his own name of Geo- 

 trupes to the gigantic species (which do not burrow in the earth), 

 and that of Scaraba;us to the earth-boring shard-borne beetles (or 

 modern Geotrupidae.) Mr. MacLeay, however, endeavoured to remed}' 

 this confusion by restoring the name of Scarabaeus to the Sacred 

 beetle, and giving to the Scarabcous of Latreille (Geotrupes Fab.^ 

 the name of Dynastes. His names have not, however, been adopted 

 abroad ; and the consequence is that, even at the present day, the 

 great Hercules beetle and its allies is generically named Dynastes by 

 English, Scarabaeus by French, and Geotrupes by German, entomolo- 

 gists. But i^QW general observations upon the geographical distribution 

 of these insects (and these suggested by Mr. ^lacLeay and Dr. Reich 

 Nova Acta Ccesar. Nat. Curios, t. xvi. par. 2.) can be given. The 

 tropical forms appear to extend much further north in America than 

 in Europe ; that is, in a manner directly the reverse of what takes place 

 in plants. Thus, Copris carnifex F., Cetonia nitida F., Rutela G-punc- 

 tata Latr., and other New York insects, bear a far greater resemblance 

 to insects from tropical America, than species inhabiting the same 

 latitude in Europe would bear to tropical Africa. Again, the Glaphy- 

 ridx have never as yet been found in the Old World, nor the Rutelida:^ 

 in the New. The Aphodiidae seem most numerous in rather higli 

 latitudes ; the Geotrupidae in temperate, and the Scaraba'i in tropical, 



* Hist. Nat., XXX. ,30. " Scai"<ibcTum qui pilulas volvit. Propter lame ^I'^-gypti 

 magna pars Scarabajos inter numina colit," as (juoted by MacLeay. 



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