246 
COLEOPl’EKA. 
projecting forward as a flat plate, beneath which are the mouth-parts. 
The prothorax often has projections and the head a process or spine, or a 
number of teeth on the anterior 
edge. The hard rough elytra 
cover the abdomen completely, 
with the exception of the 
pygidium. The legs are large 
and powerful, the tibiae broad¬ 
ened and spined at the apical 
half, the tarsi slender. In the 
larger species the fore tarsi are 
commonly absent. The robust 
spherical body, the large broad¬ 
ened legs, the platelike head, 
the spines or projections on 
head and prothorax are extremely characteristic, and the bodily 
structure is specially modified in connection with the peculiar habits. 
Throughout this large sub-family the habits are, so far as known, 
fairly uniform. The beetles collect in dung, feeding upon it and making 
it into balls which they roll over the surface of the ground and take into 
the soil, where they either feed upon it or use it as food for their young, 
dividing it into portions in each of which an egg is laid, and which the 
larva inhabits and gradually eats. The flat head is used as a shovel in 
these operations, digging out the food, shaping it and consolidating it; 
the long legs assist the beetles in rolling these pellets over the ground and 
the digging forelegs aid in excavating or enlarging holes in the ground. 
In the dry hot weather, dung of cattle attracts great numbers of these 
beetles and the spot becomes lively almost at once with these active and 
energetic insects. It is a common sight to see beetles rolling these pel¬ 
lets, usually larger than themselves, rapidly along the soil and their 
antics are usually very grotesque. All do not roll dung, some (the small¬ 
er species) making a tunnel below the mass of dung and carrying down 
what they require. The end of the tunnel is filled with dung fairly 
closely packed; the beetles either feed upon it, remaining over it and 
devouring it while a long mass of excrement is deposited, or they lay an 
egg in it, the white footless grub feeding in the mass. April to June 
seems to be the period of greatest activity of the beetles, but the details 
■¥vr. 141.— Heliocop ris Bucephalus, 
MALE. [F. M. H.] 
