142 



INSECTS. 



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burrowing beetle, Scarabceus variolosus (nat. size). 



coloration no beetles can rival many of those belonging to the two subfamilies 

 Cetoniince and Rutelince. The male stag-beetles, as we have just seen, are 

 distinguished by their large heads and monstrous jaws, but in the males of the 

 present family it is as a rule the prothorax which is greatly enlarged or 



otherwise modified in form, and 

 often furnished, like the head, with 

 processes of various kinds, some- 

 times short, in others taking the 

 shape of huge curved or branching 

 horns. The family admits of two 

 principal divisions. In the first 

 division the ligula of the lower 

 lip is more or less membranous and 

 distinct from the mentum, and the 

 spiracles of the abdomen are all 

 situated in the connecting membrane 

 between the dorsal and ventral plates. Among these we may mention the genus 

 Scarabceus, over sixty species of which are known, most of them African, some 

 occurring in Asia, and a few, including sacer, one of the 

 sacred beetles of the Egyptians, found also in South Europe. 

 Amongst the coprophagous species, met with in Great Britain, 

 those of the genus Aphodius, which represents a second sub- 

 family, are the most numerous. They are somewhat oblong 

 in form, as shown in our figure of Aphodius fossor, one of 

 the largest and best-known species, and are usually shining 

 black, though in man}'' the elytra are of a reddish or yellow 

 colour, in some cases spotted with black. A type of another 

 subfamily is found in the genus Geotrupes of which we have 

 in this country several species, including the well-known 

 " dumble-dor " or " shard-born " beetle (G. stercorarius). The 



species almost all exhibit dark blue or black colours, and in most cases the sexes 

 differ little in external form; but in G. typliceas, the male is 

 distinguished by having three horns projecting from the pro- 

 thorax. The plant-feeding or phytophagous subfamilies belong 

 to the second division of the Scarabceidce. In these the ligula 

 is consolidated with the mentum, and the abdominal spiracles 

 are placed, some in the connecting membrane between the dorsal 

 and ventral plates, the others on the sides of the ventral plates. 

 One of our most familiar insects, the common cockchafer, gives 

 a good idea of the general form and style of coloration pre- 

 vailing in the subfamily Melolonthince, while in habits also it 

 resembles other species of the same group. As examples of 

 some of the other Mclolonthinoi we figure Polyphylla /alio, 

 one of the finest European species, which, though not indigenous 

 to Britain, has occasionally been found on the south coast, and — on p. 144 — ■ 

 Rhizotrogws solstitialis, a common British insect, commonly known as the summer- 



Scarabceus sacer (nat. size). 



Aphodius fossor, with 

 larva (enlarged). 



