C28 



GEORGINA GEOTRUPIDyE. 



mental palms found in South America. They have 

 been introduced into our stove collections, and are 

 found to grow best in sandy loam, placed in strong 

 heat. 



GEORGINA (Willdenow) is the well known 

 DAHLIA, which see. The latter name was given by 

 Cavanilles.but changed to the original name by Willde- 

 now ; but it does not appear to be generally adopted, 

 as Dahlia still prevails among modern writers. 



GEOTRUPID^E (Mac Leay). A rather extensive 

 family of coleopterous insects, belonging to the section 

 Pentamcra, and sub-section Lamcllicorncs, forming 

 part of the vast genus Scarabcsus of Linnaeus, and dis- 

 tinguished by the following characters : The body 

 is generally very convex, and orbicular or suborbicu- 

 lar ; the thorax broader than long, and often armed, 

 as well as the head, with horns ; in the males the 

 scutellum is distinct ; the anterior tarsi fully de- 

 veloped ; the legs inserted at equal distances apart ; 

 the jaws exposed, horny and curved ; the antennas 

 mostly eleven-jointed. 



To this family belong the genera Bolboccrus, 

 Typhceus,Geotrupcs,Lethrus, Elcphastornus, Ichodceus, 

 Athyreus, and several other exotic genera. Of these 

 the three first are British v but the third alone will 

 claim any particular notice in a work like the present. 



The typical genus, Geotrupes (Latreille), derives 

 its names from two Greek words, signifying burrow- 

 ing in the earth, a habit possessed by the insects in 

 an especial manner, for which purpose their fore-legs 

 are endowed with very great muscular power ; and 

 and as they are broad and externally notched, they 

 are well adapted for the mode of life of the insects. 

 The body in this genus is, moreover, highly polished 

 and rounded, so as to present but slight obstacles in 

 the act of burrowing. The antennae are eleven- 

 jointed, the second joint being shorter than the third ; 

 the basal joint of the tarsi is also very short ; the 

 mandibles are exposed, and toothed at the tips ; the 

 last joint of the palpi is scarcely larger than the pre- 

 ceding, and the thorax is not armed with horns. The 

 type of this gen.us is the well-known insect which is 

 to be constantly observed flying about at dusk, espe- 

 cially in the neighbourhood of newly fallen dung, and 

 striking against every thing which may happen to be 

 in its way, whence we have obtained the saying, " as 

 blind as a beetle." This insect is the Scarabcrus 

 stercorarius of Linnaeus ; it is of a shining black 

 colour, and of an oblong oval form, but the under- 

 surface exhibits a very splendid mixture of varying 

 purple, green and steely blue ; the elytra are deeply 

 striated, and the striae are ornamented with small 

 impressed dots. The length of the insect varies 

 from two-thirds, to an entire inch. 



These insects seem to prefer still dull evenings for 

 their flight, at which time the humming noise which 

 they make is very considerable. Probably at such 

 periods the effluvium arising from the stercoraceous 

 matters which they inhabit, is more widely dissemi- 

 nated through the atmosphere, so as to cause the in- 

 sects to congregate together more numerously. They 

 dig holes to a considerable depth in the ground under 

 the dung, around which they have been flying, and 

 of which they bury a portion, depositing an egg in 

 the midst of it, which serves for the food of the larvaj 

 when hatched. Thus do they take their share, as 

 well as by feeding upon such matters themselves, in 

 the general economy of nature, " not only dispersing 

 the dung, but actually burying it at the roots of ad- 



jacent plants, and, by these means, contributing con- 

 siderably to the fertility of our pastures, supplying the 

 constant waste by an annual conveyance of fresh 

 dung, laid at the very root, by their canals ; also 

 affording a convenient passage for a portion of it, 

 when dissolved, to be carried thither by the rain." 



Our great dramatic bard has mentioned these in- 

 sects more than once, and, in so doing, has proved his 

 knowledge of the habits of the various objects of 

 nature to have been as extensive as of the workings 

 of the mind of man and indeed we are happy in 

 taking as early an opportunity as possible of vindi- 

 cating our poet from those who would tell us that 

 he always sacrificed nature to poetic effect. Such, 

 unquestionably, was not the case, and wheresoever he 

 speaks, not only of animals, but even of flowers, it is 

 always with a perfect knowledge of the habits of the 

 one, or of the time of flowering, &c., of the other. 

 We trust soon to have the pleasure of seeing the 

 talents of Shakspeare, in this respect, fully established 

 by the publication of a series ot essays from the pen 

 of a distinguished naturalist, and we scarcely know 

 any subject so capable of being made not only in- 

 teresting, but highly instructive. 



Macbeth, on the evening of the murder of Banquo, 

 by murderers whom he had hired for that purpose 

 says 



" Ere the bat hath flown 



His cloistered flight -, ere to black Hecate's summons 

 The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hum. 

 Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done 

 A deed of dreadful note." 



Now, every one admits that the shard-borne beetle 

 is the Geotrupes stercorarius, and not the Melolontha 

 vulgaris ; but commentators are not equally agreed 

 as to the meaning of the term shard-borne, and as it 

 involves the natural history of the animal, we shall 

 not hesitate to enter into a little detail upon the sub- 

 ject ; in fact there is scarcely a single passage in 

 Shakspeare (except, perhaps, the " Aroint thee 

 witch," in the same play) which has been more com- 

 mented upon than the above, not only by the com- 

 mentators, but also by naturalists, amongst whom we 

 find Spence, Mac Leay, Heinekcr, Bennet, &c. Now, 

 the word shard is rendered by some authors a broken 

 piece of tile or earthen vessel, and so Shakspeare 

 himself has used it in Hamlet, thus, " Shards, flints, 

 and pebbles should be thrown on her : " and, by an 

 easy process, the same word would be used for scales, 

 as, where Gower speaks of a dragon " whose shardes 

 shynen as the sonne ; " and thus the scales or elytra 

 of the beetle would be termed its shards ; but Toilet, 

 who opposes Malone, Steevens, Nares, and others, 

 says " the sharded beetle means the beetle lodged in 

 dung* and he cites various passages in support of 

 such assertion ; thus Bacon says " Turf and peat and 

 cow-shards are cheap fuel and last long ; " and in 

 Dryden's Hind and Panther, " Such souls as shards 

 produce, such beetle things ; " and in " A true report 

 of Capteine Frobisher, his last voyage, &c. to the 

 Orkneys," wo find " They are destitute of wood, their 

 fire is turffcs and cowe-shardes." Moreover, Mr. 

 Mac Leay states that shard is the common name for 

 cow-dung in the north ; Mr. Spence, consequently, 

 supposes that Shakspeare originally wrote sham- 

 born. And, indeed, we find in Merrett's rare Penai, 

 p. 201, the description of this very beetle, " Scara- 

 bffius stercoracius vel fimetarius, a dung beetle or 

 shard-bug." Hence the conclusion which these 

 authors draw is, that Shakspeare alluded not to the 



