278 
TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
stores up there, so that when the larva is hatched it will have its 
natural food at once. The species of another group form the genus 
Trox, and they have projecting mandibles. These species are 
small, but are readily distinguished on account of their grey colour 
and the roughness of their elytra ; they like the dust and they 
are exactly of its colour, and one of them may often be seen on 
dusty roads ( Trox sabulosus). It is a little beetle about a third 
of an inch long, having the elytra furrowed and ornamented with 
little tufts of hair. The adults and the larvae feed on the dead 
bodies of animals. 
There are several well characterised kinds of insects amongst 
the Coprince (or the Coprophagi of older authors), and their duty 
is to act as manurers of the soil. The genus Aphodius has 
many species, which are found very generally over the world. 
They have oblong bodies, and are about the smallest of the 
Scarabczidce. Aphodius fimetarius is to be found on all dung, and 
its lustrous black colour and red elytra are very marked. Aphodius 
fossor is found in the same places, and is known by its perfect 
black colour and larger size. 
These dung beetles keep their skins glossy and beautifully 
shining by secreting an oily fluid, which prevents all the nasty 
things they live amongst collecting upon them, or staining their 
skins. This is particularly observable in the sacred beetle of the 
Egyptians, Ateuchus sneer, which belongs to the group of the 
Coprince , formerly called Pilidares. The group to which this genus 
belongs is world-wide, and the American forms are representative 
of the European. The genus just mentioned, and which may 
be considered the most important, contains large black Coleoptera, 
which are particularly numerous around the Mediterranean. Their 
great broad and flat bodies attract attention at once. 
The sacred beetles have the fore legs enlarged, and furnished 
with several very strong tooth-like spines, but there is no tarsus 
at their ends, and they are evidently designed for a special pur- 
pose. The heads of the beetles clearly point to the same design, 
and are admirably adapted for the peculiar habits of the species. 
The Egyptians represented this beetle — which is now common 
in Provence and in eastern and northern Europe, as well as in 
North Africa and Egypt — on their oldest monuments ; they 
