458 THE INSECT WORLD. 



dry on the surface. It is under the excrements of ruminating 

 animals and horses that they must be looked for. They fly especially 

 at night, and may be seen buzzing about on fine summer evenings 

 in the vicinity of dung heaps. 



The Geotrupes stercorarius, the Shard-born Beetle, Clock, or 

 Dumbledor, is of a brilliant bluish black, and attains to a length of 

 about two-thirds of an inch. We may consider this Coleopteron as 

 a useful auxiliary of man in ridding the soil of excrementitious 

 matter. The genus Trox, which belongs to the same group, 

 generally inhabits sandy countries, and has its body nearly always 

 covered with earth or dust ; it lives on vegetable substances, or on 



Fig. 439. Golofa claviger. 



animal matter in a state of decomposition. The habits of the genus 

 Copris resemble those of Geotrupes ; they live in excrement. The 

 form of their clypeus, broad, rounded, without teeth, and advancing 

 over the mouth, suffices to distinguish the kindred species. In the 

 environs of Paris and in England the Copris lunaris is found. The 

 larvae of these insects form a cocoon composed of earth and dung, 

 before transforming themselves into pupae; this cocoon is more or 

 less round, and acquires a great hardness. 



The species of the genus Ateuchus collect portions of excrement, 

 which they make up into balls, and roll till they are as perfectly 

 rounded as pills, and in which they lay their eggs. This habit has 

 gained for these insects the name of pill-makers. Their hind legs 

 seem to be particularly adapted for this operation, for they are very 

 long and somewhat distant from the other legs, which gives to the 



