GEOTRUPlDiE.- 
214 
GEOTRUPlDiE.- 
INSECTS.- 
SCAKAB^ID^. 
concluded that in tropical countries the chief use of 
the Geotrupidw and other dung beetles was not so 
much to remove excrementitious matter from the 
surface of the earth, as to spread it over the ground, 
which was in this way manured. “ This they effect 
by first collecting it in convenient round balls or masses, 
in which they deposit their eggs, and then, rolling them 
along with their hind legs, they bury them in different 
places in the ground.” He adds that, when in Borneo, 
he found a species of Gymnopleurus engaged in this 
useful occupation, “ under the shade of a grove of 
Casuarina trees, where the ground was covered in many 
places with large quantities of the dung of wild boars 
and of deer, which dozens of these indefatigable black- 
coated gentry were carefully spreading over the soil.” 
Dr. Keith, in the desert between Egypt and the Holy 
Land, frequently observed one of the Sacred beetles 
similarly engaged, and has actually noticed that where 
the balls were buried, there were already indications 
of verdure. 
Although the Dung beetles live in the midst of filth, 
and one might suppose that they would contract 
defilement from their home, it is not so. How clean 
and polished is a Dung beetle, scrupulously neat even 
in the minutest portion of its frame, looking, in its full 
dress of black, more like a drawing-room guest than 
the scavenger that he is, spending his life in dirt, except 
such portion of it as is occupied in flying about in quest 
of employment. It is in this stage of its existence 
that he is known as often making the acquaintance 
of the twilight wanderers in the fields by flying in 
their faces, to their consternation and the risk of his 
own life. 
Some of the Geotrupidce have armature on the 
thorax in the male, such as the genus Typhceus, that 
beetle so common in Greenwich park. In the genus 
Athyreus, especially the New World species, the thorax 
is armed ; and in the group Bolbocerus, one Australian 
species, B. prohoscideus, ranks as a subgenus, Elephas- 
toraus, from the mouth being elongated into a kind of 
proboscis. 
In the genus Lethrus, the jaws are often much elon- 
gated and bent downwards, as in a Walrus or Deino- 
therium among recent and fossil mammalia. These 
jaws, no doubt, enable them to hang by projections in 
deep holes, and assist them in progression when they 
climb. 
The Leihrus cephalotes is common in Hungary, and 
often proves a very great pest to the vine-grower, as 
the beetle gnaws off the young shoots of the vine, and 
drags them backward into its burrow, where it feeds 
on them. The country people destroy great numbers 
of this beetle, as they are painfully conscious of the 
great mischief it occasions in the vineyard, and the loss 
which they consequently sustain. 
The curious genus Silphodes, and its allies, described 
by Mr. Westwood, Eeiche, Burmeister, and other ento- 
mologists, are very interesting, from their resemblances 
(analogically) to other groups. 
The family Scarab^id^ is a large one, and con- 
tains, especially in the genus Copris, some very bulky 
species. They are widely distributed in tropical and 
temperate regions. 
Family— SCARABHSIDiE. 
The genera Onthophagus and Aphodius, the one 
roundish, the other longish and parallel, have very 
many species. Of som.e the Onthophagi of the Indian 
species have most remarkable armature, especially the 
beautiful 0. Elliotti. There are fine African species, 
especially one — a green one with long horns — found 
near Lake N-Gami. Our little Aphodii are the chief 
dispersers of the dung of cattle. There are fifty- five 
British species of Scarabaeidse. 
SCAEABAIUS SACER (the Sacked Beetle). This 
beetle is frequently sculptured on the ancient Egyp- 
tian monuments It was a type of the sun, and was 
used as a symbol of the spring of the world, and 
of the warrior. Its symbolical affinity to the sun it 
derived from the angular projections on its head, some- 
what resembling the rays of the sun. The world it 
symbolized from the roundness of its balls, and from 
the beetles which they produced. The Egyptians 
believed that the beetles were all males, and hence 
it was to them symbolical of a courageous warrior. 
In the British Museum galleries, the Scarabseus is a 
frequent symbol on the monuments. Amulets in its 
form are frequently met with, associated with the 
mummies. 
There are many species of Scarabseidse of the genera 
Ateuchus, Gymnopleurus, Sisyphus, and Copris, in 
S. Africa. 
Among the insects allied to the “ Sacred Beetle,” 
is one genus, named Sisyphus by Latreille. It may 
Fig. 85. 
Sisyphus BowringU. 
be known by its very long hind legs, the triangular 
abdomen, and the antennae having only eight joints. 
There are species of this genus found in Europe, Asia, 
and Africa. 
Coprohius volvms, a common, dung-rolling beetle, 
abounding in the United States. 
Our Copris lunaris, and the various species of 
Geotrupes form large cylindrical holes, which are often 
of considerable depth, beneath a heap of dung. In 
these holes they deposit their eggs, having first envel- 
oped them in a mass of dung. 
Colonel Sykes has published some interesting obser- 
vations on the habits of the Copris Midas, a common 
East Indian species, from which we may make an 
extract : — 
