ON THE LAMELLICORNES. 507 



their sojourn in dunghills, and cow-dung. From this cir- 

 cumstance the French term them " Bousiers''' (Dung- 

 beetles). Foreign countries produce a great number of spe- 

 cies, many of which are very remarkable from the fantastic 

 forms of the corslet, and their prominences. Some are 

 adorned with very rich and brilliant colours. 



The Lethri have very great relations with the Scaraboei 

 of Fabricius, or Geotrupes of our author. The only species 

 which is known, Lethrus cephalotes, lives in the arid plains 

 of Tartary, Hungary, and Southern Russia. It is found in 

 dry dunghills, in the dried excrements of animals, around 

 the roots of living plants and underwood. The male and 

 female, according to Scopoli, live together in a straight cylin- 

 drical hole, which they hollow in the ground. The larva, 

 in all probability, lives in the earth, and feeds upon the roots 

 of plants. 



The insects of the genus Geotrupes were formerly classed 

 with Scarabaeus, from which, however, they differ most es- 

 sentially in the characters of the mouth, and in their habits. 

 In the supplement to his Systematic Entomology, Fabricius, 

 in adapting the genus geotrupes established by Latreille, 

 transfers this denomination of geotrupes to the insects left 

 by this author in the genus scarabaeus, and gives the name 

 of scarabsei to those which form the genus geotrupes. Can 

 any thing be more prejudicial to science than continual trans- 

 positions of this kind ? In the case before us the synonimy 

 of two genera is doubled, and habits appear to be referred 

 to Scarabaeus which belong only to geotrupes, the word sig- 

 nifying in Greek, to dig the earth with the feet. 



The Geotrupes are insects of a middle size, which some- 

 times exhibit metallic colours of the highest brilliancy ; 

 nevertheless, the upper part of their body is almost always 

 of a black, more or less mingled with brown or metallic 

 green. Thev are found in summer, in spring, and in autumn, 



