276 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
about half an inch long ; it is of a dark green colour, and is marked 
with light brown stripes. It is called Phyllopertha horticola, and 
every one must have noticed it on trees and bushes during the 
summer time. 
The Scarabeide comprise the giants of the order of the Coleoptera, 
and are well known by their heavy and clumsy bodies, which are 
solidly protected by an integument which acts like a cuirass, by 
their rudimentary lips, their strong mandibles, and by their head 
and prothorax being almost always furnished, in the male insects, 
with prolongations which look like horns. The species of the 
genus Scarabeus have their jaws furnished with teeth, and the 
general structure of their mouths indicates that they live upon 
hard leaves and even upon woody tissues. The horns which the 
males carry give them a very curious aspect. These horn-like 
prolongations present great diversities of shape in different species, 
and the endeavour to find out their uses does not meet with 
much success. There is nothing which leads to the suspicion that 
they have any particular function, when the peculiar habits and 
method of life of these insects are examined ; so that, if we take a 
limited view of the question, we may consider them as decorations 
or ornaments. 
The larger species of the Scarabeide live exclusively in those 
countries where Nature produces the most luxuriant vegetation, 
such as the Antilles, South America, and the Moluccas. 
The larve of these enormous insects live inside the trunks 
of old trees; and any one can readily believe the mischief they 
must do, and what a large quantity of vegetable matter they 
must consume during their growth. The most remarkable of the 
larger Scarabeide is Scarabeus Hercules ; it has a black body and 
olive elytra, which are very brilliant and spotted with black. The 
males have the forehead and the prothorax each armed with a 
prodigiously long horn. Another Scarabeus is as large as this 
one, it lives in New Granada, and is black in colour; another, 
which is covered with a fine layer of hairs, is found in the Brazils ; 
and the great Scarabeus Atlas, from the island of Amboyna, 
has a brilliant bronze tint. The Ovycles are the Scarabeide of 
our part of the world, and may be distinguished from the mem- 
bers of the genus Scarabeus by not having teeth in their jaws. 
