, FAMILY GEOTRUPID^. 67 



Geotrupidge. 



Geotrupes . ( Piute xii, fig. 2.) 



Color brilliant steel-blue ; beneath, clothed with yellowish brown hairs. Clypeus rough, 



with a central pointed tubercle (the thin edge of the clypeus is turned up in front) ; 



thorax smooth and shining upon its top, but coniluently punctured at the margins ; 



elytra marked with numerous punctate ridges. Length five-tenths of an inch. 



This species I have been unable to refer to its proper name. " The G. microphagus is 



dark piceous above and beneath, and the legs are violaceous." 



Geotrupes splendidus- (Plate xii, fig. 3.) 



Splendent green ; purplish beneath. Thorax rather thickly punctured, and confluent on 

 the sides ; scutellum smooth, or with tAvo or more punctures ; elytra subtuberculated 

 near the outer basal angle, angle somewhat rounded, and their surfaces are marked 

 by rounded ridges punctate in the grooves : body beneath clothed with brown hairs. 

 Length six-tenths of an inch. 



Genus COPROBIUS (Lath.). 



Body ovoid ; thorax dilated in the middle ; scutellum none ; abdomen nearly square ; 

 clypeus bidenticulated. 



COPROBIUS L.s;vis. 

 Medium size : color dull black, finely punctiu-ed ; elytral lines obsolete. The insect has a 

 submetallic hue in some lights, but is generally dull. There are about eight obscure 

 lines upon each elytrum : beneath, the body is naked, or destitute of hairs. 

 This insect is more common here than the Geotrupes. Common in June and July, when 

 they may be seen engaged in rolling a ball of dung containing their ova, and which they 

 finally bury. 



Ateuchqs sacer is a much larger insect, belonging to an allied genus, and is the sacred 

 Scarabaus which entered so largely into the mythology of Egypt. 



All these species fulfil an important place in the economy of creation ; a fact which is 

 more obvious in tropical regions than in the north. 



