4OO THE INSECT WORLD. 



the sun, assembled together to the number of four or five, occupied 

 in rolling the same ball ; so that it is impossible to know which is the 

 real proprietor of this rolling object. They seem not to know them- 

 selves ; for they roll indifferently the first ball which they meet with, 

 or near which they are placed. 



The Ateuchi are large flat insects, with a broad-toothed clypeus ; 

 they all belong to the Ancient Continent. The type of the genus is 

 the Ateuchus sacer (Fig. 442), the Sacred Scarabaeus of the Egyptians. 

 This insect is black, and attains to a length of a little less than an 

 inch. It is to be found commonly enough in the south of France, in 



Fig. 441. Scarabieus enema, or Enema infundibulum. 



the whole of southern Europe, Barbary, and Egypt. The paintings 

 and amulets of the ancient Egyptians very often represent it, and 

 sometimes give it a gigantic size. It is, doubtless, then, this species 

 which was an object of veneration with the Egyptians. 



There exists another species, which is always represented as of a 

 magnificent golden green, and to which Herodotus also attributes this 

 colour. As it was not to be found in Egypt, it was thought for a 

 long while that the Egyptians had painted the black species of a 

 more splendid colour in order to pay it homage. But in 1819 

 M. Caillaud actually found at Meroe, on the banks of the White Nile, 

 the Ateuchus sEgyptiorum, which resembles the Ateuchus sacer much 

 in colour, but has a golden tint. Since then it has also been brought 

 from Sennaar. The two species were both probably sacred. Hor- 

 Apollon, the learned commentator on Egyptian hieroglyphics, thinks 



