INSECTS. 



209 



on account of the orbicular form of its pellets of clung, and the notion of 

 their being rolled from sunrise to sunset; of the sun, because of the aneu- 

 lar projections from its head resembling rays, and the thirty joints of the 

 six tarsi of its feet answering to the days of the month; and of a warrior, 

 from the idea of manly courage being connected will i the supposed birth 

 from a male alone. It was as symbolical of this last that its image was 

 engraved on the signets of the Roman soldiers ; and as typical of the sun. 

 the source of fertility, it is yet, as Dr. Clarke informs us, eaten by the 

 women to render them prolific." 



Fig. 205. — Egyptian Scarabaei ; in the centre, two of the beetles (Ateuchus) which formed the original. 



We now know more about these insects than did the old Egyptians. 

 We know that there are females as well as males, and that the burial of 

 the ball of dung is not a symbol of anything, but merely a provision for 

 the larvoe of the next generation. Buried far beneath the surface the s 

 hatches out, and the resulting larva feeds for a time upon the substance oi 

 the pellet, and eventually changes to a pupa, and then to the adult, which 

 makes its way to the surface to perform the same curious operation. 



We have several species in the United States with habits similar to 

 those of the Scarabaeus, while others differ considerably in this respec 

 Without doubt our best-known species of these latter are the familiar 



