COLEOFTERA. O 



of human feces, so similar to large pills that some authors have 

 given them the name of Pilidaria. They roll them along with their 

 hind feet, and frequently in company, until they find a hole fitted to 

 receive them, or a soil in which they can bury them. 



Two species of Atcuchus were worshipped by the ancient Egyp- 

 tians, and formed a part of their system of hieroglyphics, They 

 are sculptured in various positions, and sometimes of gigantic di- 

 mensions, on all their monuments. They were also figured sepa- 

 rately and on the most preciovis materials, such as gold ; they used 

 them as seals and as amulets, which were suspended to the neck and 

 buried with the mummies. The Insect itself has been found in 

 some of their coffins*. The 



A. sacer ; Scarabceus sacer, L. ; Oliv., Col. I, 3, VIII, 59, 

 which is found not only in all Egypt but in the South of France, 

 in Spain, Italy, and the South of Europe generally, has hitherto 

 been considered the object of this superstitious distinction ; but 

 another species discovered in Sennar by M. Caillaud of Nantes, 

 appears from its most brilliant colours, and the country in 

 which it is found, the original residence of the Egyptians, to 

 have first attracted their attention. The latter, which I have 

 named the Ateuchus des Egyptiens — Voy. a Meroe, an fleuve 

 Blanc, IV, p. 272, Atl. d'Hist. Nat. et d'Antiq., II, Iviii, 10, 

 is green with a golden tinge, wliile the former is black. The 

 epistoma has six dentations in all, but here the vertex presents 

 two little eminences or tubercles, Avhile that of the other or the 

 A. des Egyptiens exhibits a more slight and elongated, smooth, 

 and very glossy projection. The thorax, except in the middle 

 of its back, is entirely punctured and even scabrous on the sides, 

 Avith dentated margins. The intervals of the clytral striae are 

 besides finely scabrous, with numerous and tolerably wide, deep 

 punctures. The internal side of the two anterior tibiae pre- 

 sents a series of small teeth. In the Ateuch. s^acer this same side 

 usually presents two stout teeth. 



Ateuchi — the S. ^sculapius, and another species, the Hippocra- 

 tes — in which the thorax and abdomen are shorter, rounder, and more 

 convex, and in which the first joint of the labial palpi is also shorter, 

 wider, and in the form of a reversed triangle, form the genus Pachy- 

 soma of Kirby f . 



Those in which the exterior side of the elytra is strongly emargi- 

 nated near the base, are now the 



Gymnopleurus, Illig. 

 The four posterior tibiae are usually simply ciliated or furnished 



* See my memoir oa the Insects painted and sculptured on tlie ancient monu- 

 ments of Egypt, and the works of M. de Champollion, Jun. 



f In addition to the Ateuchi above mentioned, refer to the same subgenus, the 

 A. laticoUis, variolosus, semipu/iclatus, miliaris, sanclus, &c., of Fabricius. See Mac 

 Leay, op. cit., and the Entomog. Imp. Russ., where several species of this and 

 the following subgenera are exactly delineated. 



