378 THE SACRED EGYPTIAN SCARABAUS. 
the creatures cannot crawl in the ordinary fashion, but are obliged to lie on their sides. They 
are furnished with two terribly trenchant jaws like curved shears, and immediately set to 
work at their destructive labors. 
They feed mostly upon the roots of grasses and other plants, and when in great numbers 
have been known to ruin an entire harvest. 
OF the SrtaG BreetLe, the largest of the genus Coleoptera, we present a beautiful colored 
illustration. When it has attained its full dimensions it is an extremely powerful and rather 
formidable insect, its enormous mandibles being able to inflict a very painful bite, not only on 
account of the powerful muscles by which they are moved, but in consequence of the antler- 
like projections with which their tips are armed. These horn-like jaws only belong to the 
male, those of the female being simply sharp and curved mandibles, in no way conspicuous. 
The larvee of the Stag Beetle reside in trees into which it burrows with marvellous facility, 
and as after they have emerged from their holes they appear to cling to the familiar neighbor- 
hood, they may be found upon or near the trees in which they have been bred. 
From the formidable shape of the mandibles it might be supposed that the Stag Beetle 
was one of the predaceous species. This, however, is not the case, the food of this fine insect 
consisting mostly, if not wholly, of the juices of vegetables, which it wounds with the jaws so 
as to cause the sap to flow. It is true that specimens have been detected in the act of assault- 
ing other insects, but they never seem to have been observed in the act of feeding upon their 
victim. Whether the food be of animal or vegetable nature, it is always liquid, and is lapped, 
or swept up, by a kind of brush which forms part of the mouth, and looks like a double pencil 
of shining orange-colored hairs. 
It seems that during the winter the Stag Beetle hibernates, as there is in the Ashmolean 
Museum, at Oxford, an earthen cell, or cocoon, in which was found a Stag Beetle very neatly 
packed, with its horns bent over its thorax. A popular name for this beetle is Hornbug. 
The Stag Beetle is equally well known in the United States as in Europe; its large size 
and stag-like horns giving it an attractive appearance. 
Iy the accompanying, as well as in the next illustration, beetles are represented that have 
been rendered forever famous by the honors which the ancient Egyptians paid to them, and 
the frequency with which they are represented wpon their hieroglyphs, 
and even sculptured on a gigantic scale in the hard granite which that 
wondrous race could work so easily. The present is the SACRED ScaRa- 
B&£US of the Egyptians, an insect which deserves a passing notice on 
account of its curious habits. 
The reader will remember that the burying or sexton beetles are in 
the habit of interring the dead bodies of various small animals in order 
to form a convenient nidus in which to deposit their eggs, and insure for 
their young a bountiful supply of food as soon as they enter the world. 
ale The Scarabeeus is urged by a similar instinct, but exercises it upon 
 OEEUS. aan S°A® different materials. Every one who has walked in the field must have 
(Natural size.) noticed the singular rapidity with which patches of cow-dung disappear, 
and many may have observed that this phenomenon is caused by the efforts 
of sundry beetles, which burrow beneath the mass and convey the substance deep into the 
ground. The common watchman beetle, so well known from its habit of flying on droning 
wings in the evening, is one of the best known of these valuable beetles ; and it is worthy of 
notice that, despite of the nature of the substance in which they work, not a speck adheres to 
their bright and polished armor. 
The Egyptian Beetle employs similar substances for the cradle of its future young, but 
not in the same manner, kneading into irregular balls in which it deposits its eggs, and 
then rolling it away by means of its odd-looking hind legs. After it has made the ball, 
which is often larger than itself, the beetle sets to work to roll it to a convenient spot 
where the earth is soft, and performs this curious operation by a retrograde motion, the 

