After the Cetoniadæ and the Cockchafers, we come to the Scarabæidæ, properly so called. The Oryctes nasicornis ([Fig. 435]) is very common all over Europe. It is about an inch long, of a chestnut-brown, and perfectly smooth. The male has on the head a horn, which is wanting in the female (Figs. [436], [437]). Its larva, which is a great whitish worm, larger than that of the cockchafer, lives in rotten wood and in the tan which is employed in hot-houses and in garden-frames. They were to be found by hundreds in the old hot-houses of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. The market-gardeners, who employ the tannin of the oak bark, have rendered this Coleopteron very common in the environs of that capital. [Fig. 438] represents an exotic species, the Xylotrupes dichotomus.
Among the true Scarabæi we meet with many species of gigantic size, especially in America. Dynastes Hercules, a great insect of a fine ebony black, with its elytra of an olive grey, is not rare in the Antilles. Its thorax is prolonged into a horn as long as its body, and bent round at the extremity; its head has also a long horn standing erect. The females want these appendages. [Fig. 439] represents the Golofa claviger of Guyana.
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| Fig. 436.—Head of Oryctes nasicornis, male. | ||
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| Fig. 435.—Oryctes nasicornis, male. | Fig. 437.—Head of Oryctes nasicornis, female. |
The Geotrupes are insects almost as common as the chafers. As their name reminds us, they make holes in the ground, which they scoop out, particularly in meadows, under cow-dung which has grown dry on the surface. It is under the excrements of ruminating animals and horses that they must be looked for. They fly especially at night, and may be seen buzzing about on fine summer evenings in the vicinity of dung heaps.
Fig. 438.—Xylotrupes dichotomus.
The Geotrupes stercorarius, the Shard-born Beetle, Clock, or Dumbledor, is of a brilliant bluish black, and attains to a length of about two-thirds of an inch. We may consider this Coleopteron as a useful auxiliary of man in ridding the soil of excrementitious matter. The genus Trox, which belongs to the same group, generally inhabits sandy countries, and has its body nearly always covered with earth or dust; it lives on vegetable substances, or on animal matter in a state of decomposition. The habits of the genus Copris resemble those of Geotrupes; they live in excrement. The form of their clypeus, broad, rounded, without teeth, and advancing over the mouth, suffices to distinguish the kindred species. In the environs of Paris and in England the Copris lunaris is found. The larvæ of these insects form a cocoon composed of earth and dung, before transforming themselves into pupæ; this cocoon is more or less round, and acquires a great hardness.
