.m.,^01

Fig. 441.— Scarabaeus enema, or Enema infundibulum.

the whole of southern Europe, Barbary, and Egypt. The paintings and amulets of the ancient Egyptians very often represent it, and sometimes give it a gigantic size. It is, doubtless, then, this species which was an object of veneration with the Egyptians.

There exists another species, which is always represented as of a magnificent golden green, and to which Herodotus also attributes this colour. As it was not to be found in Egypt, it was thought for a long while that the Egyptians had painted the black species of a more splendid colour in order to pay it homage. But in 1819 M. Caillaud actually found at Meroe, on the banks of the White Nile, the Ateiichiis JEgyptiorum^ which resembles the Atcnchus sacer much in colour, but has a golden tint. Since then it has also been brought from Sennaar. The two species were both probably sacred. Hor- Apollon, the learned commentator on Egyptian hieroglyphics, thinks

COLEOPTERA. 4OI

that this people, in adopting the scarabaeus as a religious symbol, wished to represent at once, a unique birth — a father — the world — a man. The unique birth means that the scarabaeus has no mother. A male wishing to procreate, said the Egyptians, takes the dung of an ox, works it up into a ball, and gives it the shape of the world, rolls it with its hind legs from east to west, and places it in the ground, where it remains twenty-eight days; the twenty-ninth day it throws its ball, now open, into the water, and there comes forth a male scarabaeus. This explanation shows also why the scarabaeus was employed to represent at the same time a father^ a majt, and the world. There were, however, according to the same author, three sorts of Scarabai: one was in the shape of a cat, and threw out brightly shining rays (probably the Golden Scarabaeus, Ateuchus ^■Egyptioruin); the two others had horns; their description seems to refer to a Copris and a Geotrupes.

As other remarkable species of Scarabcei we represent the Scarabceus enema (Fig. 441), with strong horns, the Megaceras chorincBtis (Fig. 443), the Megalosoma anubis (Figs. 444 and 445), and the Dynastes Hercules (Fig. 446).

The last family of the Scarabceidce contains the Lucanidce, or Stag Beetles. These Coleoptera are of great size, and their head is armed with enormous robust mandibles, which give them a ferocious air, which their inoffensive habits do not in any way justify. They live in half-rotten trees, the destruction of which they accelerate. Their mandibles, of such prodigious size only in the male, are of more inconvenience to them than they are of use, as they impede their flight. Their strength enables them to raise considerable weights, but they make no other use of them than to show their strength, which is enormous.- They do not attack other insects, and live only on vegetable juices. The common Stag Beetle (Figs. 447* and 448) attains to a length of two inches, or more, including its mandibles, and is of a dark brown chestnut colour. They are met with during the months of May, June, and July, in large forests, climbing along trees and hooking themselves on to the trunks by their mandibles. Charles De Geer says that the Stag Beetle imbibes the honeyed liquid which is found on oak trees, a tree it particularly seeks after, which has cau.sed it to

The figure may possibly mislead, as it shows the larva and pupa in the ground, for although recent observations show that this species does occasionally undergo its metamorphoses therein, it is not probable that the larva lives anywhere but m. wood. — Ed.

be called in Swedish Ek-Oxe (Oak ox). It is supposed that it eats the leaves also. It sometimes attacks insects. Westwood says that it has been seen to descend from, a tree carrying a caterpillar in its

Fig. 443;— Megaceias chorinaeus.

Fig 444.— Megalosoma anubis (male).

mandibles. Swammerdam had one which followed him like a dog when he offered it honey. They only fly in the evening, holding themselves nearlv straight, so as not to see-saw. Their larvae — which

Fig. 445. -Megalosoma anubis (female). Fig. 440 -T)ynastes Hercules.

COLEOPTERA. 465 are whitish, with russety heads, Uve in the interior of trees, their existence in that state lasting nearly four years. Many naturalists

think that the larva of the Liicanus was the Cosstis of the Romans, which figured on the tables of the rich patricians, and particularly of LucuUus.

THE INSECT WORLD.

466

Fig. 448 represents the Stag Beetle {Lncanus cenms); Fig. 4.19, an exotic species, the Lucanus [Homoderus) Alellyi, from the Gaboon;

Fig. 448.— Stag Beetle {Lucatms cenms). Fig. 449. — Lucnnus (Hoinodenis) MellyL

Fig. 450 the Lucanus beUicosus; and Fig. 451 another exotic species from Celebes, Do rats Titan.

The Syndesus coriudus (Fig. 452) of Tasmania, and the ChiasO' gnathus Gfattfit, from the coast of Chili (Fig. 453), of a beautiful golden green shot with copper, belong to genera akin to Lucanus.

We arrive now at the tribe of Silphales, which are still more useful to man than the Dung Beetles {Scarab(eides\ since many of them disencumber the soil of the carcases of animals in a state of

putrefaction. The most remarkable insects of this tribe are the Histers (Fig. 454), the Stlphce, properly so called, and the Necrophori.

The Histers are small insects, to be recognised by their body being almost round, smooth, and shining, with the elytra marked with strias,

Fig. 450. — Lucanus bellicosus.

and their mandibles pretty well developed. They attain to a length of about a fifth of an inch. The Silphce, thus named on account of their broad and rounded form, are of a large size (about half to three-quarters of an inch), of a dark colour, and exhale a sickly odour.

When seized, they disgorge a blackish liquid. They introduce themselves under the skin of the carcases of animals, and devour their.

Fig, 451.— Dorcus Titan.

flesh to the very bone,jne. Theine larvae,larvae, flatnai andana serrated,serratea, liveuve likeUKe thetne \ adults, in carrion. The commonest species is the Silpha obsa^ra^ of i an intense black, delicately dotted. l\vo species found in England ' and near Paris, Silpha quadripunctata (Fig. 455) and the Silpha

Fig. 4S3-— Chiasognathus Grantii.

thoracica (Fig. 456), climb trees and attack caterpillars. It seems certain that the larva of the Silpha obscura does a great deal of damage to beet-root, whose leaves it devours. The Necrodes come very near to the Silphce. They are distinguished from them by having the

4fo THE INSECT WORLD,

hind legs larger. One, Necrodes littoralis (Figs. 457 and 458), occurs in England. Fig. 459 represents N. lacrymosa^ from Australia. The /t

Fig. 454.— Hister rugosus. Fig. 455.— Silpha quadripunctata. Fig. thoracica.456. — Silpha

\ Necrophori, or Grave-diggers, are honest undertakers, who carefully bury carcases left on the soil. As soon as they smell a field-mouse, a mole, or a fish in a state of decomposition, they come by troops to

Fig- 457.— Necrodes littoralis Fig. 458.— Necrodes littoralis Fig. 459.— Necrodes lacry- (male). (female). mosa.

bury it, getting under the carcase, hollowing out the ground with their legs, and projecting the rubbish they dig out in all directions. Little by little the carcase sinks; at the end of twenty-four hours it has generally disappeared into a hole five inches in depth, but the

An COLEOPTERA.

Necrophori sink it still lower — as far as from seven to ten inches below the surface. They then mount it, cast the earth down into the grave so as to fill it, and the females lay their eggs in the tomb, where the larvae will find an abundance of food. When the ground is too hard to be dug, the Necrophori push the carcase further, till they find

Fig. 460.— Burying Beetles (^N ecroplwrus vespiUd) interring the body of a rat.

permeable soil. A mole has been run through with a stick, or else jtied by a string, to see how the Necrophori would get over the difficulty. They scooped out the soil underneath the stick, and lout through the string, and the mole was buried in spite of the obstacles. Fig. 460 represents a troop of Necrophori burying a small rat.' The Necropho7'us vespillo (Fig. 461) is variegated with yellow and

\n THE INSECT WOkLD.

black; the Necrophorus Gennajiicus (Fig. 462) is larger, quite black, and rarer. All these insects exhale a disagreeable musky smell. Their bodies are often covered with parasites, which are carried along

Fig. 461. — Necrophorus vespillo. Fig. 462. — Necrophorus Germanicus.

by them by hooking on to their hairs, and which make use of the Necrophorus as a vehicle in which they get their food.

The Staphylijiidce live in the carcases of animals, on manure, in

Fig. 463.— Staphylinus (Ocypus) olens, imago, pupa, and larva.

detritus, and attack living insects. They are, for the most part, of small size, and are distinguished by their elytra, which are short, and resemble a waistcoat or a jacket; but their wings are fully developed. The large species have strong mandibles. When irritated, the Staphylini disgorge an acrid black liquid; and by the abdomen they emit a volatile fluid having a musky odour.

Fig. 463.— StaphyHnus (Ocypus) olens, imago, pupa, and larva.

We see frequently on roads the Staphylinus olens (Figs. 463 and .464), which, when it finds itself attacked, raises its abdomen, and thrusts out two little whitish bladders, - which pour out a volatile liquid. Its larva Hves under stones, and its habits are the same as those of the adult insect. It is very carnivorous, and very active, and often attacks those of its own kind. The Staphylinus hirius

Fig. 464.— Staphylinus (Ocypus) olens.

(Fig. 466) ^Snbles at a distance a humble-bee, on account of its long yellow hairs. The Staphylinus maxillosus (Fig. 465) has black and white hairs. The genera Pselaphus and Claviger,^ akin to the above, contain little insects which live as parasites in the nests of ants. The Pselaphus Hcisii (Fig. 467), less than a line long, lives \ on the debris of reeds, on the borders of marshes.

The Clavigei" foveolatus (Fig. 468) is met with in the nest of a

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