THE SACRED BEETLE. Ill 



but we shall also meet, in tlie same situations, with a 

 good many species which are considerably shorter and 

 broader, and have the upper surface more flattened. 

 Most of the British species are of small size, and 

 belong to the genus Onthophagus, but they are the 

 representatives of a group of Lamellicorn beetles, 

 which includes an immense number of tropical species, 

 forming many genera, and often attaining a consider- 

 able bulk. It is to this group that the Sacred Beetle 

 of the ancient Egyptians belongs, and this and many 

 others are remarkable for their habit of laying their 

 eggs in balls of dung, which they then bury in the 

 earth. In rolling these balls to the place where they 

 wish to bury them, several of these insects will often 

 assist one another, and they are described as exhi- 

 biting considerable ingenuity in their operations. 

 Our British species, however, are contented, like 

 their brethren of the genera Aphodius and Geotrupes, 

 with laying their eggs in a suitable situation, and the 

 perfect insects may constantly be found in company 

 with the other Dung-beetles. 



The Beetles to which we have now to turn our 

 attention are to be sought in very different situations 

 from those in which many of the insects belonging to 

 the preceding groups delight : it is amongst the green 

 herbage of the fields and hedgebanks, or basking in 

 the sun upon the flowers, that we shall meet with 

 most of the species of the following two or three 

 tribes. In the first of these the tarsi are still, as in 

 all the preceding groups, for the most part composed 

 of five joints ; but the antennae no longer possess that 

 clubbed form, which we have seen prevailing, with 



