198 



AJV ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



therefore received the popular name 

 Fig. 186. 



' tumble-bugs. ' ' The 

 beetles are usually 

 blackish or bronze 

 brown in color, but 

 sometimes bril- 

 liantly metallic blue, 

 green, coppery, or 

 bronzed, and often 

 we find in the male 

 a prominent, curved 

 horn on the top of 

 the head, and angu- 

 lar processes on the 

 thorax. 



Other large or 

 moderate-sized spe- 

 cies make holes 

 close to or under 

 droppings in fields, 

 working mostly at 

 night, and leaving 

 evidences of their 

 presence in the 



shape of little piles of fresh dirt next to or even on top of the 

 droppings ; cow-dung being the favorite food. These beetles 



usually have deeply striated wing- 

 covers, are more stockily built 

 than those previously mentioned, 

 and belong mostly to the genus 

 Geotrypes. 



A series of small, more slender 

 or oblong, black or reddish beetles 

 is often found in considerable num- 

 bers burrowing in or under excre- 

 ment, and these have similar habits 

 and are referable to the genera 

 Aphodius or Atcsnius. 



Aphodius granarius, much enlarged. r 1 1 ic ^ • 



Very oiten large, clumsy white 

 grubs" are found in manure heaps, and these are larvae of 



A "tumble-bug," Copris carolma.—a, larva; b, the 

 cell in which it lived ; c, pupa ; d, female beetle ; e to i, 

 structural details. 



Fig. 187. 



