SCAVENGER BEETLES. 



95 



FIG 82. COCKCHAFER AND LARVA. 



nymph condition bu- 

 ried in the earth, from 

 which they slowly 

 crawl when their me- 

 tamorphosis is com- 

 pleted. We select one 

 or two familiar ex- 

 amples as illustrative of the habits of this immense group. 



The Scavenger Beetles (Geotrupcs] are among the most useful insects 

 met with in tropical cMmates : no sooner is the presence of filth announced by 

 its scent, than the scavengers are heard coming booming up the wind, and 

 roll it away at once in large pieces as big as billiard-balls, and when they 

 reach a place proper by its softness for the deposit of their eggs and the 

 safety of their young, they dig the soil out from beneath the ball, till they 

 have quite let it down and covered it. They then lay their eggs within the 

 mass. While the larvae are growing, they devour the inside of the ball before 

 coming aboveground. These beetles, with their gigantic balls, look like Atlas 

 . with the world on his back, only they go backwards and with their heads down, 

 push with their hind legs, as if a boy should roll a snow-ball with his legs while 

 standing on his head. DR. LIVINGSTONE. 



FIG. 83. THE GOLIATH BEETLE AND HERCITLES BEETLE. 



The Lamellicorn beetles embiace some of the largest of the 

 insect race, equally remarkable for their size and prodigious 



