468 THE SACRED EGYPTIAN SCAEAB^US. 



The STAG BEETLE is the largest of our British Coleoptera, and when it has attained its full 

 dimensions is an extremely powerful and rather formidable insect, its enormous mandibles 

 being able to inflict a very painful bite, not only on account of the powerful muscles by 

 which they are moved, but in consequence of the antler-like projections with which their 

 tips are armed. These horn-like jaws only belong to the male, those of the female being 

 simply sharp and curved mandibles, in no way conspicuous. 



The larvae of the Stag Beetle reside in trees into which it burrows with marvellous 

 facility, and as after they have emerged from their holes they appear to cling to the 

 familiar neighbourhood, they may be found upon or near the trees in which they have 

 been bred. 



From the formidable shape of the mandibles it might be supposed that the Stag 

 Beetle was one of the predacious species. This, however, is not the case, the food of this 

 fine insect consisting mostly, if not wholly, of the juices of vegetables, which it wounds 

 with the jaws so as to cause the sap to flow. It is true that specimens have been 

 detected in the act of assaulting other insects, but they never seem to have been observed 

 in the act of feeding upon their victim. Whether the food be of animal or vegetable 

 nature, it is always liquid, and is lapped, or swept up, by a kind of brush which forms 

 part of the mouth, and looks like a double pencil of shining orange-coloured hairs. 



It seems that during the winter the Stag Beetle hibernates, as there is in the 

 Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford, an earthen cell, or cocoon, in which was found a Stag 

 Beetle very neatly packed, with its horns bent over its thorax. A popular name for this 

 beetle is Hornbug. 



IN the accompanying illustration is represented a beetle that has been rendered 

 for ever famous by the honours which the ancient Egyptians paid to it, and the frequency 

 with which it is represented upon their hieroglyphs, and even sculptured on a gigantic 

 scale in the hard granite which that wondrous race could work so easily. This is the 

 Sacred Scarabseus of the Egyptians, an insect which deserves a passing notice on account 

 of its curious habits. 



The reader will remember that the burying or sexton beetles are in the habit of 

 interring the dead bodies of various small animals in order to form a convenient 

 nidus in which to deposit their eggs, and insure for their young a bountiful supply of 

 food as soon as they enter the world. The Scarabseus is urged by a similar instinct, but 

 exercises it upon different materials. Every one who has walked in the field must have 

 noticed the singular rapidity with which patches of cowdung disappear, and many may 

 have observed that this phenomenon is caused by the efforts of sundry beetles, which 

 burrow beneath the mass and convey the substance deep into the ground. The common 

 watchman beetle, so well known from its habit of flying on droning wings in the 

 evening, is one of the best known of these valuable beetles ; and it is worthy of notice 

 that, despite of the nature of the substance in which they work, not a speck adheres to 

 their bright and polished armour. 



The Egyptian beetle employs similar substances for the cradle of its future young, but 

 not in the same manner, kneading it into irregular balls in which it deposits its eggs, and 

 then rolling it away by means of its odd-looking hind legs. After it has made the ball, 

 which is often larger than itself, the beetle sets to work to roll it to a convenient 

 spot where the earth is soft, and performs this curious operation by a retrograde motion, 

 the hind legs directing the ball, while the four other legs are employed in locomotion. 

 During this operation the beetle seems to be standing on its head, the hind legs being 

 necessarily much elevated in order to guide the ball, which by dint of much rolling 

 becomes nearly spherical. A tolerably deep hole is then excavated in a suitable spot, the 

 ball rolled into it, and the earth filled in. 



Many beetles perform this useful operation ; and even in several European countries 

 where the beauty of the climate is only equalled by the uncleanliness of the inhabitants, 

 these beetles are of inestimable service, and are, perhaps, the only means whereby 

 the towns and villages are rendered endurable, at all events to unaccustomed eyes and 

 nostrils. Fortunately these insects fly by day as well as by night, and being gifted with 



