4^ THE INSECT WORLD. 



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

 in rolHng 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 

 t\\QAteuchus sacer (Fig. 442), the Sacred Scarabseus of the Egyptians. 

 This msect 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 



.m.,^01 



Fig. 441.— Scarabaeus 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 Ateiichiis JEgyptiorum^ which resembles the Atcnchus 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 



