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power to prohibit entirely the growing of peas in any one section for a season. Such a 

 course faithfully carried out and followed by a careful selection of seed the next season, 

 would doubtless almost, if not entirely, eradicate the pest from such district for a time, 

 and thus effect a large saving to the community; hence it is most desirable in the interest 

 of our farmers that some such permissive restrictive measure be enacted. Unfortunately, 

 in this instance, either from want of proper information on the subject, or perhaps under- 

 rating its importance, the Council declined to take action in the matter. 



SCARAB^EIM]— DIGGERS. 

 By James Fletcher, Ottawa, Ont. 



The members of the family of beetles, which bear the above name, have been objects 

 of peculiar interest to mankind for thousands of years. This is chiefly owing to the fact 

 that the typical species of the family to which it belongs, played such an important part 

 in the religion of the ancient Egyptians, and also on account of those very habits which 

 gave rise to the devotion and adoration lavished upon it by that remarkable people. 



These beetles belong to a division of the insect world to which Latreille gave the 

 name of Lamellicornes or leaf-horned, which corresponds with the Linnaean genera Lu- 

 canus and Scarabceus, and are easily distinguished by having the antennae, which are gen- 

 erally short and nine or ten jointed, terminated by a large club-shaped organ, composed 

 of, as a rule, three of the apical joints, which are formed into a series of flat plates, and 

 open like the rays of a fan or the leaves of a book, or of which the basal joint of the club 

 is hollowed so as to form a kind of cup receiving the subsequent joints ; in others the 

 terminal joints form a kind of comb. The form of these insects is robust and heavy, and 

 the males are often to be known at first sight by the presence of singular horns on the 

 head and thorax, and by the great size of the mandibles. So different an aspect is given 

 to the males by these organs that, in some instances, it seems almost incredible that they 

 can belong to the same species as the females, and it has frequently happened that the two 

 sexes have been recorded as two different species. 



This division is one of very great extent, and embraces within its wide, but clearly 

 defined limits, insects of the most various characters. It comprises the largest and hand- 

 somest of the beetle race, and at the same time some individuals very small and sombre in 

 appearance. Strangely enough, too, it includes within its ranks some of the most bene- 

 ficial and some of the most destructive of all insects ; hence, as well as from the immense 

 number of species, and the consequently important role they must perform in the economy 

 of nature, they were placed by Linnaeus and Fabricius at the head of the Coleoptera, or 

 sheath-winged insects (/coAeos — a sheath, and irTtpa — wings.) This arrangement, however, 

 has not been adhered to by later authorities, and they are now placed immediately before 

 the Buprestidce. 



The majority of these insects, and especially the gigantic species, to be mentioned 

 later, are inhabitants of the tropics. 



The two Linnaean genera, above named Lucanus and Scarabceus, constitute the two 

 primary groups into which the Lamellicornes are divisible, and to which Dumeril gave 

 the sectional names 



Priocera (Lucanus), club of antennae serrated. 



Petalocera (Scarabosus), club of antennae lamellated. 



The first of these or the family Lucanime, Leach, corresponds to the Linnean 

 genus Lucanus, and is distinguished by having the antennae abruptly bent into an angle 

 about the centre, generally composed of ten joints, and terminated by a pectinated, fissile, 

 or sub-serrated club. A striking characteristic, too, of this family is the exserted and un- 

 usually developed mandibles of the males, which gives them a most ferocious aspect, and 

 from which the popular names of stag-beetles, horn-bugs and flying-bulls have originated. 

 These organs in some instances (e.g., Chiosognathus Grantii of Chili), equal the entire 

 length of the body. They are capable of biting with great force, and the females, not- 

 withstanding that they are furnished with very small mandibles in comparison to their 



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