INSECTA-ELEPHANT BEETLE. 827 



for its young. They are endowed with sagacity to discover subsistence by 

 their excellent smelling, which directs them in flight to excrements just 

 fallen from man or beast, on which they instantly drop, and fall unanimously 

 to work in forming round balls or pellets thereof, in the middle of which 

 they lay an egg. These pellets, in September, they convey three feet deep 

 in the earth, where they lie till the approach of spring ; when the eggs are 

 hatched, the nest bursts, and the insects find their way out of the earth. 

 They assist each other, with indefatigable industry, in rolling these globular 

 pellets to the place where they are to be buried. This they perform with 

 the tail foremost, by raising up their hinder part, and shoving along the ball 

 with their hind feet. They are always accompanied with other beetles of a 

 larger size, and of a more elegant structure and color. The breast of this is 

 covered with a shield of a crimson color, and shining like metal; the head 

 is of the like color, mixed with green, and on the crown of the head stands 

 a shining black horn, bended backwards. These are called the kings of 

 the beetles; but for what reason is uncertain, since they partake of the 

 same dirty drudgery with the rest. 



THE ELEPHANT BEETLEi 



Is the largest of this kind hitherto known, and is found in South America, 

 particularly Guiana and Surinam, as well as about the river Oroonoko. It 

 is of a black color, and the whole body is covered with a very hard shell, 

 full as thick and as strong as that of a small crab. Its length, from the 

 hinder part of the eyes, is almost four inches, and from the same part to the 

 end of the proboscis, or trunk, four inches and three quarters. The trans- 

 verse diameter of the body is two inches and a quarter, and the breadth of 

 each elytron, or case for the wings, is an inch and three tenths. The anten- 

 nae, or feelers, are quite horny ; for which reason the proboscis, or trunk, is 

 moveable at its insertion into the head, and seems to supply the place of 

 feelers. The horns are eight tenths of an inch long, and terminate in 

 points. The proboscis is an inch and a quarter long, and turns upwards, 

 making a crooked line, terminating in two horns, each of which is near a 

 quarter of an inch long ; but they are not perforated at the end like the 

 proboscis of other insects. About four tenths of an inch above the head, or 

 that side next the body, is a prominence, or small horn, which, if the rest 

 of the trunk were away, would cause this part to resemble the horn of a 

 rhinoceros. There is indeed a beetle so called ; but then the horn or trunk 

 has no fork at the end, though the lower horns resemble this. The feet are 

 all forked at the end, but not like the lobster's claws. 



* ScarabcEus Ilcrculcs, Lin. 



