. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization. Animals. COLEOPTERA. 523. with a leaf-like dub ; four posterior tibicne, slender, elongate, not thickened at the tip, truncated obliciuely and ter- minated by a sino-Ie spur, and with the outer margin of the elytra not sinuated near the base ; the clypeus is gene- rally divided into three lobes, its edge presenting six teeth. These insects (which Mr. Mac Leay has described in his exceWent Hora; Entomologicie) inclose their eggs in balls of dung, or even of human excrement, like large pills, (whence they have been called Pilula
. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization. Animals. COLEOPTERA. 523. with a leaf-like dub ; four posterior tibicne, slender, elongate, not thickened at the tip, truncated obliciuely and ter- minated by a sino-Ie spur, and with the outer margin of the elytra not sinuated near the base ; the clypeus is gene- rally divided into three lobes, its edge presenting six teeth. These insects (which Mr. Mac Leay has described in his exceWent Hora; Entomologicie) inclose their eggs in balls of dung, or even of human excrement, like large pills, (whence they have been called Pilularii,) which they roll along with their hind feet (often in company), until they reach the hole in which they are to be deposited. Two of the species were worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, and introduced into their hieroglyphical writings. Their effigy is represented on all their monuments, models of them were made of the most precious materials, and formed into amulets, &c., suspended round the neck, and which were buried with the mummies. The insect itself has been found in some of their coffins. Scarabccus sacer, Linn., found not only in the whole of Egypt, but in the south of France, Spain, and other southern parts of Europe, has until lately been regarded as the object of this superstition ; but another species, dis- covered in Sennari by M. Caillaud, appears, from its more brilliant colours, and the country where it is found, and which was the first residence of the Egyptians, to have attracted their earliest attention. 1 have named it Ateuchus ^gyptiorum. (See my Memoir on the Insects painted and sculptured by the Egyptians, and the Works of Champollion.)—Some Ateuchi, having the thorax and abdomen shorter, more rounded, and more convex, form the genus Pachysoma, KIrby, (S. Msculapius, Oliv. and Hippocrates). [Mnematiim, Mac Leay, is closely allied to these. M. Ritchii, from the interior of Africa.] Gymnopleurus, Illig., diflfers in having the outer edge of the e
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