OKDKK COI.EOPTEKA. 44'7 



racter not observed in any other coleoptera. Often the males 

 diifer from the females, either by elevations in the form of 

 horns, or tubercles on the corslet or head, or by the size of 

 their mandibles. 



This family is very considerable, and one of the hand- 

 somest of the insects of this order, in relation to the size of 

 the body, the variety of forms of the corslet and head, consi- 

 dered in the two sexes, and often also in the species which 

 live in the perfect state, on vegetable substances, by the bril- 

 liancy of the metallic colours by which it is adorned. But 

 the most part of the other species which feed on decomposed 

 vegetables, or excrementitious substances, are commonly of a 

 uniform black or brown tint. Some Coprophagi, neverthe- 

 less, do not yield in this respect to the preceding. All are 

 winged, and their walk is heavy. 



The larvae have the body long, almost semi-cylindrical, 

 soft, often wrinkled, whitish, divided into twelve rings, with 

 the head scaly, armed with strong mandibles, and six scaly 

 feet. Each side of the body has nine stigmata. Its poste- 

 rior extremity is thicker, rounded, and almost always curved 

 underneath, so that these larvae, having the back convex or 

 arched, cannot extend themselves in a right line, walk badly 

 on a smooth plane, and fall every moment either reversed or 

 on the side. We may form some idea of their structure 

 from that of the larvae, so well known to gardeners under the 

 name of the white worm, that of the common May-bug. 

 Some do not change into the nymph, but at the end of from 

 three to four years. They form for themselves, in their 

 sojourn, with earth, or the debris of substances which they 

 have gnawed, an ovoid shell, or in the form of an elongated 

 ball, the parts of which are connected with a glutinous sub- 

 stance,which they cause to issue from their bodies. They feed 

 on excrements, on dung, the soil itself, the roots of vegeta- 

 bles, and often even on those which are necessary to our wants. 



