OF THE LINN^AN SCARAB^I. 17 



also to be remembered, that the genera Melolontha and 

 Cetonia had already been indicated by De Geer, and that 

 the union of Geoffrey's genus Copris with Scarabceus in 

 the Systema Entomologies was a retrograde step in the 

 science, which many years afterwards the entomologist of 

 Kiel found it necessary to correct a . One advantage, how- 

 ever, attended the formation of the Fabrician genus Scara- 

 bceus, which was, that the connexion between the insects 

 afterwards named Geotrupes by Latreille and Geoffrey's 

 genus Copris was thereby re-established. 



Olivier was aware of the imperfection of Geoffroy's ge- 

 nus Copris, and therefore adopted the genus Scarabceus of 

 Fabricius, with all his other genera except Trichius ; for 

 which omission he gives sufficient reasons, considering the 

 state in which entomology then was. 



This French naturalist also divided the Fabrician genus 

 Scarabctus as follows : 



1. Les Scar abees qui ont des mandibules, et qui n'ont 



point de levre superieure. 



2. Les Scarabees qui ont des mandibules, et une levre 



superieure. 



3. Les Scarabees qui n'ont ni mandibules ni litre supe- 



rieure. 

 These three groups are strictly natural ; and making 

 allowance for the incorrectness of the principles on which 

 the above distinctions were founded, Olivier may be said 

 to have brought the natural history of De Geer's Scarabcei 

 terrestres to the state in which it now stands. For if we 

 except the names bestowed on the foregoing three di- 

 visions of the Fabrician genus Scarabcsus, and the more 



* Suppl. Ent. Syst. p. 23. 

 C 



