The larvæ, or grubs, lodge under the bark, or in the hollow of old trees; which they bite and reduce to fine powder. The larvæ are supposed to exist three or four years before they form their cocoons. These insects are mostly found in Kent and Sussex. In Germany there is a popular but idle notion, that they sometimes, by means of their jaws, carry burning coals into houses; and that, in consequence of this mischievous propensity, dreadful fires have been occasioned. The Stag Beetle is one of the lamellicorn Coleoptera.
THE ELEPHANT BEETLE,
(Scarabæus, or Dynastes Elephas,)
Is found in South America, particularly in Guiana and Surinam, as well as near the river Orinoko. It is one of the largest beetles of its kind; it is black, and the whole body is covered with a very hard shell, quite as thick and as strong as that of a small crab. Its length, from the hinder part to the eyes, is almost four inches; and from the same part to the end of the large horn on the head (from the resemblance of which to the proboscis of an elephant, and its great size, the beetle has obtained its name) four inches and three quarters. The transverse diameter of the body is two inches and a quarter; and the breadth of each case, for the wings, upwards of an inch. The horns are about an inch long, and terminate in points. The head-horn is an inch and a quarter long, and turns upwards, making a crooked line terminating in two horns, each of which is nearly a quarter of an inch long. Above the head is a prominence, or small horn, which, if the rest of the trunk were away, would cause this part to resemble the horn of a rhinoceros. There is, indeed, a beetle named after that animal, whose lower horn resembles this: its scientific name is Oryctes Rhinoceros.