THE 



325 



history the laying of an egg in the pellet has, however, been called in question by a most 

 accurate observer, M. Fabre, who declares, as the result of numerous and long-continued observations, 

 that there are no eggs in the pellets. He lias further shown that the dung is gathered and rolled and 

 deposited in burrows solely in order to furnish a gluttonous feast to the Beetles themselves. The eggs, 

 he believes, are deposited in a different way, in the midst of a supply of more succulent parts of the 

 excrement. As to the stealing of pellets one from the other, M. Fabre confirms the statement, and 

 gives a most amusing description of the different ways in which the robbery is effected. 



In the typical genus Scarabatus, or Ateuchus, the semicircular clypeus is divided by sharp notches 

 into a series of triangular teeth, and in repose the tooth-like projections of the anterior shanks flank 

 the fore part of the body, owing to the fore legs being retracted. It is supposed to be either the 

 resemblance to sun-rays 

 thus produced, or the sin- 

 gular instincts of the in- 

 sects, or both, that led 

 to these Beetles being 

 regarded as sacred by 

 the Egyptians. The com- 

 monest species in Lower 

 Egypt (Scarabrrus sawr) 

 is considered to be that 

 most frequently repre- 

 sented on Egyptian monu- 

 ments. This is a smooth 

 black species ; but a bril- 

 liant golden - green kind, 

 named S. eyyptiorum, 

 found on the Upper Nile, 

 the primitive home of the 

 strange race who gradu- 

 ally spread over the lower 

 valley, was believed by 

 Latreille to have been the 

 species originally wor- 

 shipped. 



About seventy species 

 of Scarabseus are known. 

 They are confined to the 

 Old World, having their metropolis in tropical Africa, where several species of great size and rich 

 colours are met with. None are found in the north temperate zone. S. sacer occurs in all the 

 littoral countries of the Mediterranean. In America the Scarabsei are represented by the genus 

 Canthon, in Australia by Cephalodesmius and others, and in Madagascar by the brilliant Ejrilissi 

 all much smaller insects, but having similar habits. 



The remaining Copridse differ from the above by their much shorter hind legs, the tibiaB of which 

 are more or less dilated at the tip, and by the weak tapering tarsi. In this group, owing to the 

 digging and burrowing habits of the species, some of which excavate galleries two or three feet deep in 

 clayey earth, beneath the droppings of large herbivorous animals, the tarsi become of very subordinate 

 importance, and in one South American genus (Dendropcomon) three of the joints disappear altogether. 

 The females in this group deposit their eggs in unformed masses of pabulum, either drawn into the 

 underground galleries excavated by them, or simply left on the surface. 



The sub-family Apkodiince have a projecting clypexis similar to that of the Coprince, but they 

 differ from the latter by their stronger and often armed lower jaws. They are also more elongated 

 insects, with less voluminous sternum, and are nearly always provide 1 with a scutellum. The genus 

 Aphodius is copiously represented in temperate and high north em latitudes, and contains few tropical 



SCAHAB.V.IS SACER (SACKED BEETLE 



