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SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



warlike subjects being often sculptured in intaglio 

 upon the earliest productions of the latter people, it is 

 conjectured they were sometimes bestowed as rewards 

 and marks of favour upon their military heroes. The 

 Scarabaeoid form for various ornaments of personal 

 adornment, was at a later period introduced into 

 Greece, whilst figures of this beetle were also worn 

 upon the signets of the Roman soldiery as symbolical 

 of manly courage, on account of its supposed birth 

 from the male sex only. To the Scarabaeidae belong 

 Aristophanes' Cantharus and other beetles of the 

 Ancients, the habit of rolling balls of dung, in which 

 were enclosed their eggs, common to many members 

 of the group, having attracted the attention of 

 observers from the earliest times. 



The family has been variously divided by modern 

 naturalists, but in Britain we follow the arrangement 

 of Drs. Leconte and Horn, whose classification has 

 been adopted by Canon Fowler in his monograph. 

 In this arrangement, which is based upon differences 

 in the structure and position of the lingula and 

 abdominal spiracles, the group is divided into three 

 portions termed (i) Scarabaeidae Laparosticti ; (2) 

 Scarabaeidae Melolonthini ; and (3) Scarabaeidae 

 Plevrosticti ; each of which divisions is again sub- 

 divided into several tribes. With the two latter 

 groups we are not concerned in the present article, 

 but taking the first-named we note its members fall 

 naturally into two great sections, the one having 

 five and the other six ventral segments of the 

 abdomen plainly visible. To the former of these 

 belong the Trogina, the members of whose single 

 fi;enus Trox are found in dry decaying skins, hides, 

 horns and like substances, whilst the latter comprises 

 the three tribes Coprina, Aphoduna, and Geotrupina, 

 nearly all of which are dung feeders. The Coprina, 

 round-oval convex insects, of which over seventy 

 species occur in Europe, are readily distinguished 

 from the other two in having scarcely any visible 

 scutellum, whilst members of the two remaining 

 tribes may be separated from one another by the 

 number of joints to the antennae, nine in the Apho- 

 duna and eleven in the Geotrupina. Of the latter tribe, 

 four genera occur on the Continent, of which two are 

 found in Britain, viz., Odontaeus Klug. and Geotrupes 

 Latreille. The first-named genus contains but one 

 beetle, Odontaeus mobilicornis t an exceedingly rare 

 insect, that has not been taken in England for many 

 years. This brings us to Geotrupes, a genus contain- 

 ing considerably over a hundred species, widely 

 scattered over the temperate regions of the globe, 

 some fifty being, natives of Europe, and seven 

 indigenous to our own islands. 



Although not so noticeable in character as some of 

 the exotic members of the family, the habits of this 

 genus have a special interest of their own. From 

 very early times they appear to have attracted the 

 attention of our leading naturalists, and even our 

 poets have made mention of them in their verses. 

 "The shard-bome beetle with his drowsy hum" 

 {Macbeth III. 2) of Shakespeare, Crabbe, and Hogg, 



belongs to the dumble-dors, and is usually associated 

 with Geotrupes stercorarius or one other of the com- 

 moner species. Authorities have differed considerably 

 as to the correct spelling of the word "born" or 

 "borne " and the meaning of the word "shard" as 

 here employed. In his dictionary Dr. Johnson 

 interprets the epithet "to be bom amongst broken 

 pots or stones," but Toilet holds that Shakespeare 

 probably wrote " sham-born '' — sham being a 

 common name for cow- dung in Staffordshire and 

 other Midland and Northern English counties. 

 Again, not an inconsiderable number of commentators 

 incline to the belief that the shards are the wing- 

 cases and that the term refers to the method of 

 carrying the elytra, which are poised aloft during 

 flight ; whilst yet others consider it was the common 

 cockchafer {Alelolontha vulgaris), and not the 

 dumble-dor at all, to which Shakespeare referred 

 (Patterson). 



In the face of so many and varied criticisms it 

 behoves one to be careful in advancing an opinion, 

 but when we consider the life-history of the dumble- 

 dor, we cannot help feeling that Dr. Johnson's 

 interpretation as applied to this beetle is certainly not 

 a happy one. In the light of further reference to 

 shards in Anthony and Cleopatra (III. 2) — " Both he 

 loves. They are his shards, and he their beetle " — 

 and again in Cymbeline (III. 3), where Belarius, the 

 banished lord, says: "... Often to our comfort 

 do we find the sharded beetle in a safer hold than 

 is the full-winged eagle." It certainly appears 

 probable that Shakespeare used the term in connec- 

 tion with the wings or wing-cases. 



In some parts of the country the Geotrupes are 

 known as dor- blind- or clock-beetles, and in others as 

 tumble-dungs and lousy watchmen. In referring to 

 old natural histories, confusion may arise in connection 

 with the first-mentioned name, as most of the earlier 

 writers used it in describing Melolentha vulgaris. 

 Tumble-dung is probably an Americanism, the term 

 being applied in the United States to a closely 

 allied species, and the "lousy watchman " obtains 

 its name both on account of its being most in evidence 

 after nightfall, and because it is often infested with 

 numbers of little animals called Gamasus coleoptra- 

 iorum. These parasites are yellowish white in 

 colour and oval in form, and may commonly be 

 ound attached to the underside of the beetle. They 

 belong to the Acarina, or mites. In Denmark the 

 peasants regard these little animals as furnishing an 

 unfailing augury respecting their harvest time. If 

 in spring the ticks are numerous between the front 

 legs of the " Skambosse " (or " Torbist "), as the dor- 

 beetle is there called, it is a sure prognostic that the 

 in-gathering will be an early one ; but if, on the 

 contrary, they are mostly confined to its posterior 

 portions, then will the harvest be late. Linne tells us 

 (Syst. Nat.) that large quantities of Geotrupes on 

 wing, during the evening, portend a subsequent fine 

 day, but as Kirby has pointed out (Int. Ent.) they 

 usually only fly in numbers during fair and settled 



