198 
NATURAL HISTORY OF 
knowledge, under the candlestick. A few blows 
were struck on the table, and, to his great surprise, 
the candlesticks began to move about, apparently 
without any agency ; and his surprise was not 
much lessened w r hen, on taking one of them up, he 
discovered that it was only a chafer that moved.”* 
“An insect of the size of a May-bug,” says 
another writer, evidently in relation to one of these 
beetles, . “ is of the greatest utility in so hot a cli- 
mate ; it is the scavenger and dustman of the whole 
country. It labours with indefatigable industry to 
collect all the filth that might infest the air, and 
makes small balls of it, which it hides very deep in 
holes which it has dug in the earth. It breeds in 
sufficient numbers to keep the town and the villages 
clean 
The next genus which has been selected to illus- 
trate the lamellicorn tribe of beetles is named 
ONTHOPHAGUS, 
a term that has reference to their habits, being 
composed of the two Greek words evQog, dung , and 
p ayo;, an eater or consumer . It consists of a con- 
siderable number of species, which are inferior in 
size to the generality of their dung-devouring 
confederates, excepting the Aphodii, which form 
* Catesby’s Carolina. 
+ Proyart’s History of Loango. 
