26 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol. XI 



reille to be worked up, but they were pitiably meager. However 

 Egypt gives us the first mention of a beetle, the scarab. The 

 worship of this creature antedates the history of any land. 



In life the scarab is a coprophagous Scarabseid beetle, about an 

 inch long, black and stout, occurring commonly all around the 

 Mediterranean, extending to the Cape of Good Hope and to south 

 China. Its life history is similar to that of any of our common 

 Canthon or Copris. Its scientific name is Ateuchus sacer. No 

 severer arraignment can be made of the vandalism injected into 

 scientific nomenclature than the mutation whereby the generic 

 name Ateuchus has been substituted for ScarabcEUs in violation 



Fig. I. Fig. 2. 



Fig. I is drawn from a gold inlay on a lacquered copper box. While it 

 came from Assyrian remains near Ninevah and dates about 800 B. C, it is 

 characteristically Egyptian and was probably imported. One wing is 

 omitted for convenience. Note that the wing is feathered like a bird, not 

 membranous like a beetle. This conventionality is general after, say, 

 4,000 B. C. 



Fig. 2 is a conventional symbol of very common occurrence, meaning the 

 flight of time or the complete cycle of the world. Egyptologists generally 

 call it a bird symbol. Compare it with Fig. i, and note that, while the 

 tail is of a bird, the horns are of the scarab. The wings might be either. 

 The significance of the symbol is that of the scarab. 



of every phase of the rights of priority and the destruction of the 

 right application of name to the oldest, grandest, best known genus 

 of beetles in the world. Throughout classic times and the Middle 

 Ages all beetles were known either as ScarahcBus or Cantharis. 

 The type of the genus restricted by Linnaeus is, of course, the 

 sacred beetle. 



The present genus Ateuchus is a fairly large one, about thirty 

 species being so far described from Africa. More than one were 

 included in Egyptian veneration. A notable variety, found widely 



