COLEOPTERA. 5 
ef human feeces, so similar to large pills that some authors have 
given them the name of Pilularia. They roll them along with their 
hind feet, and frequently in company, until they find a hole fitted to 
receive them, or a soil in which they can bury them. 
Two species of Ateuchus were worshipped by the ancient Egyp- 
tians, and formed a part of their system of hieroglyphics, They 
are sculptured in various positions, and sometimes of gigantic di- 
mensions, on all. their monuments. They were also figured sepa- 
rately and on the most precious materials, such as gold; they used 
them as seals and as amulets, which were suspended to the neck and 
buried with the mummies. The Insect itself has been found in 
some of their coffins*. The 
A. sacer; Scarabeus sacer, L.; Oliv., Col. I, 3, VIII, 59, 
which is found not only in all Egypt but in the South of France, 
in Spain, Italy, and the South of Europe generally, has hitherto 
been considered the object of this superstitious distinction; but 
another species discovered in Sennar by M. Caillaud of Nantes, 
appears from its most brilliant colours, and the country in 
which itis found, the original residence of the Egyptians, to 
have first attracted their attention. The latter, which I have 
named the Ateuchus des Egyptiens—Voy. i Meroé, an fleuve 
Blane, LV, p.. 272, Atl. d’Hist. Nat. et d’ Antiq., IL, lviii, 10, 
is green with a golden tinge, while the former is black. The 
epistoma has six dentations in all, but here the vertex presents 
two little eminences or tubercles, while that of the other or the 
A. des Eqyptiens exhibits a more slight and elongated, smooth, 
and very glossy projection. The thorax, except in the middle 
of its back, is entirely punctured and even scabrous on the sides, 
with dentated margins. The intervals of the elytral stric are 
besides finely scabrous, with numerous and toler ably wide, deep 
punctures. The internal side of the two anterior tibie pre- 
sents a series of small teeth. In the Atewch. sacer this same side 
usually presents two stout teeth. 
Ateuchi—the S. sculapius, and another species, the Hippocra- 
tes—in which the thorax and abdomen are shorter, rounder, and more 
convex, and in which the first joint of the labial palpi is also shorter, 
wider, and in the form of a reversed triangle, form the genus Pachy- 
soma of Kirby ft. 
Those in which the exterior side of the elytra is strongly emargi- 
nated near the base, are now the 
GymMnoeteurvs, Ilhig q: 
The four ee tibize are usually simply ciliated or furnished 
* See my memioir on the Insects painted and sculptured on the ancient monu- 
ments of Egypt, and the works of M. de Champollion, Jun. 
+ In addition to the Ateuchi above mentioned, refer to the same subgenus, the 
A. laticollis, variolosus, semipunciatus, miliaris, sanctus, &c., of Fabricius. See Mac 
Leay, op. cit., and the Entomog. Imp. Russ., where several species of this and 
the following subgenera are exactly delineated. 
