156 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. m 



of three species of European Geotrupes and of Typhoeus typhoeus. 

 Several other excellent papers appeared, at almost the same time, by 

 Fabre (1918), Sano (1915-1916), Main (1917, 1918), and Schjelderup- 

 Ebbe (1925). Main's observations were the most comprehensive of 

 the biological studies done in Europe. Recently, von Lengerken 

 (1952) published on the biologies of several species of Geotrupinae. 

 While most of the work was done on the Geotrupini, the tribe Lethrini 

 received some early attention. Emich (1884) discussed the meta- 

 morphosis of Lethrus apterus, and other works on single species of 

 Lethrus were done by Shipley (1887), Schreiner (1906), and Reymond 

 (1933). Fabre (1912, 1919, 1922) discussed the habits mainly of the 

 adults of Bolbelasmus and Typhoeus (under the name Minotaurus). 

 The biology of the single European species of Odontaeus (now Bolbo- 

 ceras) has been discussed by Bedel (1911), Arens (1922), and Muller 

 (1948). The information on larval morphology of the British Geotru- 

 pinae has been ably compiled and summarized by van Emden (1941) 

 with descriptions and keys to all known larvae. He did not, however, 

 include biological data. 



Despite the amount of work on European species, very little has 

 been written concerning the habits of American species. Sim (1930) 

 made some careful studies of a number of species of Bolboceras, but 

 was not fortunate enough to work out the biology of the immature 

 stages. The first mention of the biology of the larva of a species of 

 North American Geotrupes was a brief account by Loding (1935) of 

 Geotrupes ulkei. This was followed by a very detailed and compre- 

 hensive paper by Ritcher (1947) in which were given descriptions and 

 biological notes of the known larvae of North American Geotrupinae 

 and keys to all known genera. It was in this paper that the larvae of 

 the genera Bolbocerosoma and Bolboceras were accurately described 

 for the first time. 



Before the appearance of Ritcher's paper, a number of authors — 

 Boving and Craighead (1930-1931), Paulian (1939), Hays (1929), and 

 later Edwards (1949) — had stated the necessity of erecting the family 

 Geotrupidae based in large part on the reduced third leg of the larva 

 of Geotrupes. WhUe the question of family rank will not be settled 

 for some time, Ritcher added a number of new facts to be considered, 

 which make the writer doubt the validity of family rank. The group 

 is at present treated as a subfamily. 



The most recent work that included some biology was a compilation 

 of information by Arrow (1951). While this work contained a large 

 amount of data, it was unfortunate that there was not more originality 

 in the biological observations. All of the portions on biology of the 

 Geotrupinae were either taken from other sources, many of them 

 faulty, or were poorly based suppositions. It is unfortunate that so 



