214 



Geotkupid^.- 



-INSECTS.- 



-SOARAEiEID^E. 



concluded that in tropicil countries the chief use of 

 the Geolrupidce and other dung beetles was not so 

 much to remove exorementitious matter from the 

 surface of the earth, as to spread it over the ground, 

 which was in this way manured. " This they effect 

 by first collecting it in convenient round balls or masses, 

 in which they deposit their eggs, and then, rohing them 

 along with their hind legs, they bury them in dillerent 

 places in the ground." He adds that, when in Borneo, 

 he found a species of Gymnopleurns engaged in this 

 useful occupation, " under the shade of a grove of 

 Casuarina trees, where the ground was covered in many 

 places with large quantities of the dung of wild boars 

 and of deer, which dozens of these indefatigable black- 

 coated gentry were carefully spreading over the soil." 

 Dr. Keith, in the desert between Egypt and the Holy 

 Land, frequently observed one of the Sacred beetles 

 similarly engaged, and has actually noticed that where 

 the balls were buried, there were akeady indications 

 of verdure. 



Although the Dung beetles live in the midst of filth, 

 and one might suppose that they would contract 

 defilement from their home, it is not so. How clean 

 and polished is a Dung beetle, scrupulously neat even 

 in the minutest portion of its frame, looking, in its full 

 dress of black, more like a drawing-room guest than 

 the scavenger that he is, spending his life in dirt, except 

 such portion of it as is occupied in flying about in quest 

 of employment. It is in this stage of its existence 

 that he is known as often making the acquaintance 

 of the twilight wanderers in the fields by flying in 

 their faces, to their consternation and the risk of his 

 own life. 



Some of the Geotrupidce have armature on the 

 thorax in the male, such as the genus Tijphccus, that 

 beetle so common in Greenwich park. In the genus 

 Athymts, especially the New World species, the thorax 

 is armed ; and in the group Dolhocerus, one Australian 

 species, B. pirohosndi'us, ranks as a subgeims, Ehphas- 

 tonnis, from the mouth being elongated into a kind of 

 proboscis. 



In the genus Lethrus, the jaws are often much elon- 

 gated and bent downwards, as in a Walrus or Deino- 

 therium among recent and fossil mammalia. These 

 jaws, no doubt, enable them to hang by projections in 

 deep holes, and assist them in progression when they 

 climb. 



The Lethrus cephalotes is common in Hungary, and 

 often proves a very great pest to the vine-grower, as 

 the beetle gnaws off the young shoots of the vine, and 

 drags tliem backward into its burrow, where it feeds 

 on them. The country people destroy great numbers 

 of this beetle, as they are painfully couscious of the 

 great mischief it occasions in the vineyard, and the loss 

 whidi they consequently sustain. 



The curious genus Silphodcs, and its allies, described 

 by Mr. Westwood, Reiche, Burmeister, and other ento- 

 mologists, are very interesting, from their resemblances 

 (analogically) to other groups. 



The family ScAE.\BiElD^ is a large one, and con- 

 tains, especially in the genus Copris, some very bulky 

 species. They are widely distributed in tropical and 

 temperate regions. 



Family— SCARAB^IDiE. 



The genera Onthnp)liarjus and Aphodius, the one 

 roundish, the other longish and parallel, have very 

 many species. Of some the Oiithophctgi of the Indian 

 species have most remarkable armature, especially the 

 beautiful 0. ElUotti. There are fine African species, 

 especially one — a green one with long horns — found 

 near Lake N-Gami. Our little Aphodii are the chief 

 dispersers of the dung of cattle. There are fifty- five 

 British species of Scaraba;idie. 



SCiRAB5;US SACER (THE Sacred Beetle). This 

 beetle is frequently sculptured on the ancient Egyp- 

 tian monuments It was a type of the sun, and was 

 used as a symbol of the spring of the world, and 

 of the warrior. Its symbolical affinity to the sun it 

 derived from the angular projections on its head, some- 

 what resembling the rays of the sun. The world it 

 symbolized from the roundness of its balls, and from 

 the beetles which they produced. The Egyptians 

 believed that the beetles were all males, and hence 

 it was to them symbolical of a courageous warrior. 

 In the British Museum galleries, the Scarabaius is a 

 frequent symbol on the monuments. Amulets in its 

 form are frequently met with, associated with the 

 mummies. 



There are many species of Scarabajidse of the genera 

 Ateuchus, Gymnopleurus, Sisy2Jhus, and Copris, in 

 S. Africa. 



Among the insects allied to the " Sacred Beetle," 

 is one genus, named Sisyphus by Latreille. It may 



Fig. 85. 



Sisyphus llowringii. 



be known by its very long hind legs, the triangular 

 abdomen, and the antenna having only eight joints. 

 There are species of this genus found in Europe, Asia, 

 and Africa. 



Coprohius volvens, a common, dung-rolling beetle, 

 abounding in the United States. 



Our Copris lunaris, and the various species of 

 Geotrupes form large cylindrical holes, which are often 

 of considerable depth, beneath a heap of dung. In 

 these holes they deposit their eggs, having first envel- 

 oped them in a mass of dung. 



Colonel Sykes has published some interesting obser- 

 vations on the habits of the Copris Midas, a common 

 East Indian species, from which we may make an 

 extract : — 



