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Show 402 INSECTA. habits; divisions, the distinction of which has been confirmed by the researches of M. Dufour. The CoPROPHAGI or the Scarabceides of our first section, usuall 1 f . . . y have their antennre composet o nmc JOmts, and of eight in the others, the tluee la~t forming the club. The labrum and mandibles at•e membranous and concealed. The ter~inal lobe of the maxilla: is also of th~ same nature, wide .a~d arcuated at. the superior margin and curved mwards. The last JOint of the maxillary palpi is alw~ys the largest and almost oval or nearly cylindrical; but the same of the labial pal pi is almost always more slender than the preceding ones or very small. Behind each of the latter palpi there is a membra: nous projection in the form of a ligula. The mentum is emargi· nated. The sternum exhibits no particular prominence, and the hooks of the tarsi are always simple. The anterior tarsi arefre. quently wanting in several, either ab ovo or because they are deci. duous. The length of the alimentary canal is always vet·y great; occa· sionally (as in Copris lunaris) ten or twelve times that of the body. The cbylific ventricle occupies the largest portion of it, is studded with conoid papillce, is closely folded together and kept in this state of agglomeration by numerous tracheal bridles. The intestine is filiform and terminates by an inflation. The testes of the Copro· phagi, dissected by M. Dufour, appeared to him to consist of six orbicular, slightly dept·cssed spermatic capsules, usually united by trachece in one bundle, each placed on a tubular and tolet•ably long pedicle, which terminates in a short vas deferens. There is butone pair of vesiculce seminales; they are very long, filiform, and in nu• merous folds. This first section corresponds to the third division of the genus Scarabceus, Oli v ., or to that of Copris, but with the addition of some of the Scarabceides-Aphodius-of that naturalist. In some, the two intermediate legs are more remote at base than the others; the labial pal pi are very hairy, with the last joint much smaller than the others, or even indistinct; the scutellum nullor extremely small, and the anus exposed. Coprophagi of this division peculiar to the eastern continent, with a rounded body, usually depressed above or but slightly convex, similar or but little different, and without horns in both sexes; in which the antennce of nine joints terminate in a foliaceous club; without scutellum, or sutural hiatus indicating its place; in which the four posterior tibice, usually furnished with ciliated or hairy fringes, are slender, elongated, not dilated at the extremity, or but slightly so, t:·uncated obliquely, and terminated by a single stout COLEOPTEUA. 403 and spinifot·m or acuminated spur; and finally, in which the epistoma is more or less lobate Qr dentated, form the genus ATEUCirus, Web. Fab., Since, however, restricted to tho.se species in wl~ich the eXtt:!rior margin of the elytt·a is straight, or unemarginated and without a sinus neat· their base exposing the corresponding portion of the superior margin of the abdomen. The tibice and tarsi of the four last legs are furnished with long hairs; the four first joints of the tar~i are g~~erally longe~· th~n in the othet·s. The first joillt of the labtal palp1 lS nearly cylmdncal, or in the form of a reversed cone. The epistoma is most commonly divided into three lobes or festoons and its contour presents six teeth. ' These Insects, which M. Mac Leay, Jun., in his ingenious Horce Entomologicre, I~ P· 184, designates by the generic appellation of Scarab:eus, as bemg the name originally bestowed upon them bv the Latins( I), and of which in the same work-part II, p. 497-he gives an excellent Monograph, conceal their ova in balls of dung, and even of human freces, so similar to large pills that some authors have given them the name of Pilularia. They roll them along with their hind feet, and frequently in company, until they find a hole fitted to receive them, or a soil in which they can bury them. Two species of Ateuchus were worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, and fot·med a part of their system of hieroglyphics. They are s:ulptured in va~ious positions, and sometimes of gigantic dimensiOns, on all the1r monuments. They were also figured separately and on the most precious materials, such as gold; they used them as seals and as amulets, which were suspended to the neck and buried with the mummies. The Insect itself has been found in some of their coffins(2). The .11. sacer; Scarabreus sacer, L.; Oliv., Col. I, 3, VIII, 59, ~vhich is found not only in all Egypt but in the south of France, m Spain, Italy, and the south of Europe generally, has hitheJ·to been considered the object of this superstitious distinction; but another species discovered in Sennar by M. Caillaud of Nantes, appears from its more brilliant colours, and the country in which it is found, the original residence of the Egyptians, to have fit•st attracted their attention. The latter; which I have named the .llteuchus des Egyptiens-Voy. a Meroe, au fleuve (1) The Heliocantharo8 of the Greeks. (2) See my memoir on the Insects painted and sculptured on the aneient monuments of Egypt, and the works of M. de Champollion, Jun. |
