110 THE LAMELLICORNIA. 



larger animals, and in our searches for the beetles 

 just referred to, we can scarcely fail to meet with 

 plenty of them. Amongst the most abundant of these 

 are some little beetles forming the genus Aphodius, 

 specimens of which may be met with almost any- 

 where, and at all seasons. One of the commonest is 

 the Aphodius fimetarius, which measures about a 

 quarter of an inch in length, and is of a shining black 

 colour, with bright red elytra ; it is so plentiful, that 

 very often on turning over a piece of cow-dung, we 

 find the whole exposed surface completely spotted 

 over with its red wing-cases. Still more striking, 

 and equally abundant, is the common Dor Beetle 

 (Geotrupes ster cor arms] , whose loud humming flight 

 is constantly heard in our evening walks, if, indeed, 

 our attention is not called to the fact of the beetle's 

 existence in a more disagreeable manner by his dash- 

 ing full in our faces. This insect is nearly an inch 

 long, and of a shining blue-black colour ; in its larva 

 state it always inhabits dung, and before becoming 

 converted into a pupa burrows down into the earth to 

 a considerable depth, and there awaits its further 

 transformations. Even in the perfect state it has the 

 same tastes as its larva, and its nocturnal wanderings 

 are connected with the continuation of the species. 

 Several other species of the genus Geotrupes are 

 found abundantly in this country, and amongst them 

 one is remarkable for the possession of a pair of long 

 horns on the front of the prothorax, and between 

 these a third smaller one. This is the Geotrupes 

 Typhaus, which has been raised to the rank of a 

 distinct genus by most English writers. 



The preceding dung-eating Beetles are all of an 

 ovate form, and very convex on the upper surface, 



