24 DERMESTID^E. — LUCANID^E. 



no probability of continuing any longer his career of glory. 

 He might therefore be supposed to say hie meta laborum, 

 as it in reality proved, at least with regard to insects, for 

 Pausus was the last he ever described.^ 



Dermestidae — Leather-beetles. 



In one of the stone coffins exhumed from the tumuli in 

 the links of Skail, were found several small bags, which 

 seemed to have been made of rushes. They all contained 

 bones, with the exception of one, which is said to have been 

 full of beetles belonging to the genus Dermestes. Both the 

 bag and beetles were black and rotten.^ 



Four species of Dermestes were found in the head of one 

 of the mummies brought by Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson from 

 Thebes — the D. vulpinus of Fabricius, and the pollinctus, 

 roei, and elongatus of Hope.^ 



It is a remarkable coincidence that two peoples should 

 bury beetles of the same genus with their dead, and much 

 the more so, when they differ so widely, as did the ancient 

 Britons and Egyptians. Was it for the same reason — the 

 result of any communication ? 



At one time the ravages of the Dermestes vulpinus were 

 so great in the skin-warehouses of London, that a reward 

 of £20,000 was off'ered for an available remedy.'^ 



Lucanidae — Stag-beetles. 



The etymology of the word Lucanus, as well as its ap- 

 plication to a species of insect, it is interesting to notice. 

 The ancients gave the name of Lucas, Lucana, to the ox 

 and elephant. It is said that Pyrrhus had thus named the 



1 Shaw's Zool., vi. 42. 



2 Gough's Sepul. Mon., vol. i. p. xii. — These sepulchral tumuli, or 

 burrows, are of the remotest antiquity, and continued in use till the 

 twelfth century. — Ibid. 



3 Wilkin. And. Egypt, ii. (2d S.) 261 ; and Pettig. Hist, of Mummies, 

 p. 53-5. 



* Baird's Cyclop, of Nat. Sci. 



