68 



There are also several species of another sub-tribe (Coprini), closely allied to the 

 Ateuchini, which possess somewhat similar habits. They differ chiefly by frequently 

 having the heads of the males armed with a large curved horn, and by having the middle 

 and hind tibiae gradually thickened, which unfits them for transporting the balls of 

 material which serve for the food of the larva? ; though some of the species do construct 

 balls, they bury them in the place where they are formed. Notwithstanding that these 

 insects live in such unclean localities, they are remarkable for their constant state of 

 glossy cleanliness; this is due to an oily fluid which they secrete, and which prevents all the 

 nasty things they live amongst from collecting upon them or staining their coats. 



The type of this group (Scarabaeidae), is the renowned Ateuchus Sacer, or Sacred 

 Scarabseus, of the Egyptians, perhaps the most celebrated of insects. It was wor- 

 shipped by them as a god, and dried specimens of the actual beetles or models of all 

 sizes and in every possible material, from the commonest stone to the most precious metals, 

 have been frequently discovered in Sarcophagi, or rolled up in mummies and other ancient 

 relics found among the monuments on the borders of the Nile. For common use they 

 were made very small, and some were pierced so as to form necklaces for the women, 

 others were used as seals, as is shewn by the inscriptions beneath them. Plutarch states 

 that the military caste^ made use of the figure of a Scarabaeus as a seal, and Horappollon 

 explains this by asserting that this insect peculiarly represents man, since (as was formerly 

 believed) " there are no females of its species." A male wishing to procreate, said the 

 Egyptians, takes some of the dung of an ox, and having fashioned it into the shape of 

 the world, rolls it with its hind legs from east to west, and places it in the ground, where 

 it remains twenty-eight days. On the twenty-ninth day the ball is exhumed and thrown 

 into the water, where it opens and another male comes forth. Some of the models of the 

 Scarabaeus which have been found are of very large dimensions — one in the British 

 Museum, carved in granite, is about four feet. in length. There are several smaller 

 specimens cut from marble, porphyry, agate, lapis-lazuli, garnet and gold. 



Representations of it are to be found everywhere throughout the whole land of Egypt, 

 carved upon the temples, tombs, monuments and obelisks. 



The reverence shewn to these insects seems to have been called forth by many causes 

 in their imaginative minds. Being an agricultural people, and knowing the habits of the 

 Scarabaeus, they worshipped it, because they could appreciate how, by the manner in which 

 it provided for the welfare of its own offspring, it also benefited them by fertilizing the 

 ground, and removing from the surface obnoxious matter. Its sudden appearance in great 

 numbers on the sandy margins of the Nile, after the fall of the water every year, together 

 with its extraordinary motions whilst rolling along its globular balls of dung, were re- 

 garded as mystically representing the resurrection of the soul, and the motions of the earth 

 and sun. It, with the earthen ball containing an egg in the centre, was also regarded as 

 an emblem of fecundity, and to this day, the beetle is eaten by the women of Egypt. On 

 account of the shape of the egg-ball, and the wonderful care bestowed upon it by the 

 parent beetle, it was employed as an emblem of the Creator's watchful care over the 

 world. 



In addition to these, a short mention must be made of two other families of ground 

 beetles which are much commoner, and which from that account perform the useful work 

 of their kind much more fully than the above-named interesting species. These two fam- 

 ilies are the Geotrvpid.ee, or earthdiggers, and the Aphodiidce, or cow-dung frequenters. 

 They do not form balls of the food for their larvae, but burrow straight through the mass 

 and down into the earth below j they then bring down some of the material from above, 

 and deposit an egg in it, in the same way as the others. Two well known instances of 

 these families are Geotrupes blackburnii, a small, blackish beetle with a green lustre, of 

 about one-half or three-quarters of an inch in length, and Aphodius fimetarius, a small 

 cylindric-shaped insect, with coral-red elytra, which is always to be seen about manure 

 heaps in spring, and although it is one of the commonest of our insects, was only intro- 

 duced from Europe a comparatively small number of years ago. 



To the second division of the Scarabaeidae, namely, the " Tree-beetles," belong a large 

 number of insects, whicn are perhaps even more injurious than their near relatives, the 

 ground beetles, are beneficial. These are of much greater interest to the farmer than 



