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XII. Descriptions of several new Species of Insects belonging to the Family of the Sacred 
Beetles. By J. O. Westwoop, Esq., F.L.S. &c., Secretary to the Entomological So- 
ciety. Communicated by the Secretary. 
Read January 24, 1837. 
THE family of the Sacred Beetles has attracted the attention of the admirers of Na- 
ture from the earliest ages, not only on account of the circumstance of the insects of 
which it is composed having formed portion of the many objects ‘‘ qualia demens 
Aigyptus coluit,” but also from the extraordinary habits of the insects themselves, which 
were indeed the cause of their being selected by the Egyptians as objects of worship. 
But this group of insects has, in more recent times, been regarded by naturalists with 
interest, from its having led to the publication of the most philosophical work which 
has for a great length of time appeared upon the relations and natural distribution of 
the Animal Kingdom, the ‘ Hore Entomologice ;’ in the preface to which work the 
author expressly states that it was with the view of ascertaining the real situation in 
nature of the Scarabeus sacer, that he undertook the task of endeavouring to arrange 
animals upon a plan which appeared more in harmony with their real relations, than 
that developed in any previous system. 
How far this has been effected time and a more perfect acquaintance with the objects 
of the animated world will prove. It will be sufficient here to state, that the genus 
Scarabeus of Linnzus was strictly analysed and divided into two parallel columns, each 
containing five families, and that two genera composing the restricted family Scara- 
beide were also analysed, namely, Scarabeus and Phaneus, the former being divided 
into five types of form, and the latter (as far as was then known) into four, an evident 
hiatus existing between two of the types of form, which it was supposed by the author 
would eventually be filled up by insects possessing certain characters, which he therein 
indicated. 
The two groups thus analysed have been subsequently held up by the supporters of 
the doctrines of the Hore Entomologice as evidences of the correctness of such doc- 
trines, and as illustrations of the practical application of the theory to the lowest 
groups, namely, genera and subgenera. Confining ourselves to the restricted family 
Scarabeide of MacLeay, it will be seen that this author gives no indication of the five, 
or other number of genera, of which he considers that the family consists ; and it is only 
by looking through the various observations upon the family in different parts of his 
work, that we find, in addition to the two genera mentioned above (Scarabeus and Pha- 
