344 TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY 



numbers of the grubs turned up by the plough. A still more effectual 

 means of preventing the damage consists in destroying the beetle itself 

 (why ?), and also by protecting its enemies, viz., bat, badger and hedge- 

 hog, but especially the great host of song-birds. Indeed, as an excellent 

 naturalist has tersely expressed it, " Protection for song-birds means 

 food for men." 



Other Lamellicorn Beetles. 



The larvae of the beetles briefly mentioned below all live in the soil, 

 or in decaying wood or in dung. Hence, it is not surprising that all of 

 them strongly resemble the larva of the cockchafer. Moreover, these 

 beetles themselves display a considerable amount of resemblance to the 

 cockchafer (explain this more fully), for all of tbem on the completion of 

 their metamorphosis have to work their way up to the light, all feed 

 upon vegetable substances, and all are obliged to bury their eggs. 



The familiar yellowish-brown June Beetle or Small Cockchafer 

 (Rhizotrogus solstitialis) represents a cockchafer in miniature (explain 

 names). On roses and other flowers we often find the golden-green 

 Rose Beetle (Cetonia aurata), which resembles a glittering gem. These 

 insects feed on the tender portions of the blossom, and with the brush-like 

 portions of their maxilla? lick up the sweet juices of the flower. Their 

 larvse live in rotten wood, and frequently also enter the lowest decayed 

 layers of the nests of the red ant. 



Among the numerous species of beetles which consume the dung of 

 cattle, the best known are the Dung or Dor Beetles (Geotrupes). They 

 are large and mostly of a lustrous steel-blue colour. Even from a 

 considerable distance they scent their unsavoury food. Where the soil 

 is loose the beetles burrow out vertical canals beneath dung-heaps, into 

 each of which the female deposits an egg, and also a portion of dung 

 to serve as food for the larva hatched from the egg. When roughly 

 handled these beetles emit a stridulating noise (see burying beetle). 

 This is caused by the friction of the coxae of the hinder pair of legs 

 against the sharp edges of the third abdominal somites. The dung 

 beetles as well as the burying beetles are frequently much infested 

 by beetle-mites (Gamasidce). Belated to the dung beetle is also the 

 Sacred Beetle of the Egyptians (Ateuchus sacer), which lives in 

 South Europe and North Africa. In this species the male and female, 

 after the latter has laid an egg in the dung, make a pill of the latter, 

 which they bury in the earth. The old Egyptians held this insect as 

 sacred, and frequently perpetuated its image on a very large scale in 

 stone (scarabsei). 



