264 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. lo* 



summer. Incubation lasts about 14 to 16 days with the resulting 

 larva growing rather rapidly until fall. Then, as an early third 

 instar, it overwinters, does a small amount of feeding in the spring, 

 and finally pupates in July. The adults emerge from their pupal 

 cells in September, overwinter, and begin egg laying the following 

 spring, completing a 2-year life cycle. 



Sano mentioned that the emerging beetles do not necessarily come 

 to the surface by way of the old burrows, but dig new ones. Main 

 (1917, pp. 18-22) brought out several interesting facts. In many 

 cases he found the male aiding the female in making burrows and 

 provisioning the larval cells. The male pushed the excavated dirt 

 from the burrow, rotating the body 90°, and then heaved the small 

 plug of earth upward. This was followed by another turn, another 

 heave, and so on. Wlien the burrow reached the desired depth, the 

 male brought the dung down the burrow to the female, and she in turn 

 packed the larval cell. Main observed that if the male did not return 

 with alacrity (p. 20) "the female then calls him using the stridulatory 

 apparatus situated on the base of the abdomen and the posterior 

 coxae. It is quite audible to an observer. If he still lags she comes 

 up after him and gives him a good dressing down, clawing him vigor- 

 ously, and he then once m^ore resumes his task." Main mentioned 

 however, that the female may do all of the work unaided. He also 

 stated that three, four, or five brood chambers may be made branching 

 off a single burrow. A diagram of the burrow of Geotrupes stercorarius 

 with its brood cells can be found in the paper by Spaney (1910, fig 3). 



The larva of this introduced species, Geotrupes stercorarius Linne, 

 has not been collected in this country to my knowledge. However, 

 it has been described in European literature a number of times. The 

 original description was by Frisch (1736, pp. 13-15), but the only larval 

 character brought out by him was the reduced metathoracic leg. 

 Later, Schi0dte (1874, table 16, pi. 61, figs 1-18; table 19, pi. 64, fig. 13) 

 described the larva more fully, but unfortunately treated some of the 

 structures more artistically than accurately. Schi0dte's fanciful 

 drawing of the epipharynx was later perpetuated by Hayes (1929, 

 p. 25, pi. 6, fig. 58). The most adequate descriptions and best illus- 

 trations can be found in Spaney (1910, p. 632), Sano (1915-1916, 

 pp. 25-28), Main (1917, pp. 18-22), and van Emden (1941, p. 121). 



The larva can easily be separated from the other known North 

 American Geotrupes larvae by the following characteristics given by 

 van Emden (1941, p. 121): Greatest width of head capsule of third 

 instar "5.9 to 6.8 mm," and 



Sclerotized line of the endoskeletal figure of ventral anal lobe meeting that of 

 the other side and forming with it a subtriangular area, but not extending beyond 

 it towards the sclerotized line that defines the ventral edge of the lobe. Sub- 



