508 SUPPLEMENT 



in the excrements of ruminating animals, but rarely in hu- 

 man excrements, or those of carnivorous animals. Some 

 species prefer the habitation of the forests, and feed on 

 mushrooms. Others, and they are the most numerous, are 

 fovmd abundantly in pasturages, and remain the entire day in 

 heaps of cow-dung, from which they issue forth only in the 

 evening to fly low, in a right line, and very heavily. The 

 least shock throws them down. It is at this part of the day 

 that these animals couple, and that the females seek to de- 

 posit their eggs in the dung, which appears to them proper 

 to afford an abundant nutriment to the young larvae which 

 are to spring from them. 



The larva of geotrupes very much resembles that of melo-- 

 lontha, but it is smaller. It is of a dirty white ; its body is 

 soft, folded on itself, and furnished with six scaly feet and a 

 scaly head. This larva, after having lived some time on the 

 matter with which it is surrounded, sinks into the earth, and 

 sustains itself on roots. At the end of a year or two it is 

 transformed into a nymph, and in a year after, this nymph 

 changes into the perfect insect. 



We have figured a new species, belonging to the singular 

 genus Bolhoceras, of Kirby, under the name of Bolh. Bil- 

 hergii. It is of a piceous colour, and is thickly but finely 

 punctured, with the antennae and legs redder. The thorax 

 is broader behind than the elytra, and very much deflexed in 

 front, having several oblique raised lines upon its disc ; the 

 elytra strongly striated. This insect is from Demerara, and 

 is in the cabinet of Mr. Children. 



The insects of the genus Tuox differ from the Geotrupides 

 in the number of articulations of the antennae, and the habit 

 of concealing their head between their anterior feet, and 

 some other characters. 



These insects are found on the earth, in the fields, in sandy 

 and somewhat dry places. They arc often observed to gnaw 



