156 
BRITISH BEETLES. 
given on account of certain of these insects rolling 
pellets of the excrement of cattle, in which they 
deposit the eggs), is common all over the country; 
flying strongly, though in a blundering sort of way, 
towards evening ; and often simulating death, by 
keeping motionless and stretching out its legs like 
pieces of wire, when handled. Sometimes it is ob- 
served on the wing in the hot sunshine, suggesting 
the idea of an owl under similar circumstances. This 
insect is sometimes called “ Lousy Watchman ” among 
the vulgar ; the qualifying epithet being deserved from 
its being frequently infested on the lower surface by 
several of a species of Gamasus ; though it is not 
easy to comprehend how so delicately constructed a 
parasite can extract a meal through the stout armour 
of the beetle in question. 
The strength of the Geo trapes is very great, so much 
so, that it is scarcely possible to retain one in the 
hand : this is caused by the great development of the 
thorax, containing the muscles of the anterior spinose 
digging legs. The female, usually in the autumn, 
digs a burrow, about a foot deep, into the earth 
beneath patches of cow-dung, a portion of which is 
carried down as food for the larva to be hatched from 
the egg she deposits at the bottom. 
The larvae afterwards ascend to the surface, having 
eaten the contents of the burrow. 
Typhosus vulgaris (Plate VIII., Fig. 2), an allied 
insect, found in dung, or crawliug about pathways, 
on sandy commons in early spring and autumn, has 
the thorax in the male armed with three strong horns, 
of which the outer pair are the longest; the female 
having a rudimentary sketch of a similar structure. 
