body, the variety of forms exhibited in the head and thorax, sexually 

 considered, is one of the most beautiful of the order, and frequently 

 also as regards the species, Avhich in their perfect state live upon 

 vegetable substances, by the splendour of the metallic colours with 

 which they are ornamented. Most of the other species, however, 

 feeding on decomposed vegetable aliment, such as dung, tan, or ex- 

 crementitious matters, are usually of one uniform black or brown 

 hue. Some of the Coprophagi, however, do not yield even in this 

 respect to the former. They are all furnished with wings, and their 

 gait is heavy. 



The body of the larvae is long, almost semicylindrical, soft, fre- 

 quently rugose, whitish, and divided into twelve annuli, with six 

 squamous feet ; the head is squamous and armed Avith stout mandi- 

 bles. Each side of the body is furnished Avith nine stigmata ; its pos- 

 terior extremity is thicker, rounded and almost always doubled under 

 it, so that the back being arcuated or convex, the animal cannot ex- 

 tend itself in a straight line, crawls badly on a level surface, and falls 

 backwards on its side at every instant. An idea of their form may 

 be obtained from that of the larva, so well known to gardeners by the 

 name of ver hlanc, which is that of the Melolontha vulgaris (a). 



Some of them require three or four years to become pupae ; they 

 construct in their place of residence an ovoid shell, or one resembling 

 an elongated ball, composed of earth or the debris of substances they 

 have gnawed, the particles of which are cemented by a glutinous 

 matter produced from their body. Their aliment consists of the dung 

 of various animals, mould, tan, and roots of vegetables, frequently 

 such as are necessary to man, of which they sometimes destroy im- 

 mense quantities, to the great loss of the cultivator of the soil. The 

 tracheae of these larvae are elastic, while those of the perfect Insect 

 are tubular. There is also a remarkable difference in the nervous 

 system in these two states. The ganglions are less numerous and 

 more closely approximated in the perfect Insect, and the two poste- 

 rior ones give off numerous radiating filaments. According to the 

 observations of M. Marcel de Serres on the eyes of Insects, those of 

 most of the Lamellicornes present peculiar characters, which approxi- 

 mate their organization to that of the Tenebrionites, Blattpe, and 

 other lucifugant Insects. 



The alimentary canal is generally very long, particularly in the 

 Coprophagi, and contorted round itself; the chylific ventricle is 



ff^ (a) Our common grubs, which are so abundant in dung-hill, gardens, &c., 

 are larvae of various species of Lamellicornes. — Eng. Ed. 



