304- INSECTA. 



This family is very numerous, and with respect to the size of the body, the 

 variety of forms exhibited in the head and thorax, sexually considered, is one 

 of the most beautiful of the order, and frequently also as regards the species, 

 which in their perfect state live upon vegetable substances, by the splendour of 

 the metallic colours with which they are ornamented. Most of the other 

 species, however, feeding on decomposed vegetable aliment, such as dung, tan, 

 &c., are usually of one uniform black or brown hue. Some of the Coprophagi, 

 however, do not yield even in this respect to the former. They are all 

 furnished with wings, and their gait is heavy. 



The body of the larvae is long, almost semicylindrical, soft, frequently 

 rugose, whitish, and divided into twelve an null, with six squamous feet; the 

 head is squamous and armed with stout mandibles. Each side of the body is 

 furnished with nine stigmata ; its posterior extremity is thicker, rounded, and 

 almost always doubled under it, so that the back being arcuated or convex, the 

 animal cannot extend itself in a straight line, crawls badly on a level surface, 

 and falls backwards or on its side every instant An idea of their form may 

 be obtained from that of the larva, Melolontha vulgaris*, so well known to 

 gardeners. 



Some of them require three or four years to become pupaj ; they construct in 

 their place of residence an ovoid shell, or one resembling an elongated ball, 

 composed of earth or the remains of substances they have gnawed, the particles 

 of which are cemented by a glutinous matter produced from their body. 

 Their aliment consists of the dung of various animals, mould, tan, and roots 

 of vegetables, (frequently such as are necessary to Man,) of which they some- 

 times destroy immense quantities, to the great loss of the cultivator of the soil. 



We will divide this family into two tribes. In the first or that of the 

 S AHAH.KIDKS, we find the antennae terminating in a foliaceous and generally 

 plicatile club, and composed in others of joints that fit into each other, either 

 in the form of a reversed cone or nearly globular. The mandibles are identical 

 or almost similar in both sexes, but the head and thorax of the males exhibit 

 peculiar projections or eminences; sometimes also their antenna? are more 

 developed. This tribe corresponds with the genus 



SCARABJEUS, Linnaus. 



This genus is now divided into several small sections established on charac- 

 ters drawn from the organs of manducation, antennae, and habits. 



The COPROPHAGI or the Scarabaeides of our first section, usually have their 

 antennae composed of nine joints, and of eight in the others, the three last 

 forming the club. 



Among the most interesting of the various genera which compose this sec- 

 tion is the 



* Our common grubs, which arc so abundant in dung-hills, gardens, &c., arc larvae of 

 various species of Lamcllicorncs. 



