378 THE SACRED EGYPTIAN SCARABjEUS. 



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 Stag Beetle, 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 larvae 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. 



In 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 winch they are represented upon 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 Scaka- 

 b.eis 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. 



The Scarabseus is urged by a similar instinct, but exercises it upon 



nAR - 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 



