198 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



climates. The Dynastidse, Cetoniida?, Anoplognathidas, and Rutelidae, 

 are most numerous in the warmer chmates; but the two first recede 

 much further from the equator than the two last. The giant Dynas- 

 tidae are far more abundant, and of a larger size, in South America than 

 in India. The tropical Coprophagous species are more numerous than 

 the extra tropical, being in the proportion of 4' : 3 ; the services rendered 

 in hot climates by these scavengers of nature requiring such an in- 

 crease. The species of Onthophagus and allied genera are exceed- 

 ingly numerous in East India. In like manner, Coprophaga in 

 general, as compared with the remainder of the Saprophagous Peta- 

 locera are in the proportion of 3 : 2. ; but more recent discoveries 

 have proved that the Coprophaga are still numerous, being in Dejean's 

 new catalogue in the proportion, as compared with the remainder of 

 the Linntean Scaraba?i, of 2 : 3. 



From the vast extent of this tribe of insects (there being nearly 

 2000 species indicated by Dejean), and from the great variation in 

 their habits and structure, it is evident that their investigation must 

 be accompanied by the establishment of a great number of divisions 

 and subdivisions. The Linna?an distribution, founded upon the 

 presence or absence of horns in the head and thorax, is as artificial as 

 can well be imagined ; the sexes of the same species varying in these 

 respects. Scopoli, in his Entomologia CarnioUca, introduced a more 

 natural mode of arrangement, dividing the species into Anthophagi 

 (flower-eaters) Phyllophagi (leaf-eaters), and Stercorei (dung-eaters) ; 

 and the same mode of distribution was also followed by De Geer, who 

 established three families: 1. Scarabees de terre ; 2. Scarabees des 

 arbres; 3. Scarabees des fleurs. * In the former arrangement, Oryctes 

 and Trox were arranged with the Phyllophagous species, but in the 

 latter the Dynastes were arranged in the first family. Various genera 

 were subsequently established by Fabricius, Latreille, Olivier, Illiger, 

 and others, as independent groups, but which Latreille brought to- 

 gether according to their affinities ; adopting, in his earlier works, three 

 families: Coprophagi,Geotrupini,andScarab0eides; which last comprised 

 not only the " Scarabees des arbres" and " Scai'abees des fleurs," but 

 also a portion of the " Scarabees de terre." Mr. MacLeay, whose 

 elaborate investigations of this group are published in the Horce En- 

 tomologicce, considers that the Linna^an Scarabjei branch into two co- 



* Perty still more naturally divides the Scaraba3i into three sections ; those fre- 

 quenting growing vegetables, putrescent vegetable matter, or dung-feeders. 



