appears to be much more common than the Ateuchus Ægyptiorum, which is of a golden green colour, and must be that imitated by the artists of Lower Egypt; while those of Upper Egypt have chosen the Ateuchus Ægyptiorum for their model. M. Caillaud found this insect in Sennaar, but not in Egypt. He however discovered the elytra and other remains of them in the mummy-cases in Egypt, which seems to prove that this insect has existed, and perhaps still exists, in that country. As Aristotle and Aristophanes employ the word Cantharis to denote the Sacred Scarabæus, I infer that these two authors had in view the Ateuchus Ægyptiorum of M. Caillaud.
This first species of Scarabæus of which Pliny speaks is also, according to the view we have taken, the first of the three species of these insects which are mentioned by Horapollo as being held in great veneration by the Egyptians.
The second species of Scarabæus used as an amulet for the cure of the quartan ague, spoken of by Pliny, is employed, he says, by the magicians, but that care must be taken to collect these insects with the left hand. This species has small reflected horns, cui sunt cornicula reflexa.
From this indication, Hardouin, and other commentators following him, refer this insect to the Lucani. They are mistaken.
The Lucanus, vulgarly called the Stag-Beetle, is one of those insects which Pliny has most correctly described[1]; and naturalists have therefore allowed it to retain the name which he assigned to it. He gives a good description of its long, indented, and bifurcated horns, which he says are suspended around the neck of children to preserve them from the bite of venomous beasts: "Cornua prælonga bisulcis dentata forcipibus in cacumine." This will not agree with the little recurved horns of the other species of Scarabæus with which it has been identified. This second species of the Scarabæus of Pliny appears to be the second species described by Horapollo; according to this author it has two horns, and the form of the bull; it is sacred to the moon. We are disposed to think that this is the large species of Copris (Bousier), with two horns, which M. Savigny brought from Egypt, and named Midas. It is sculptured in the temple of Karnak, and according to the observation of Latreille appears to belong to the genus 'Onitis, recently separated from the Coprophagi[2].
M. Millin, in his account of the engraved Egyptian stones in the Bibliothèque du Roi, says that an engraving of a sculptured Scarabæus may be seen in the cabinet of antiques of St. Geneviève, which he considers as the Scarabæus Mimas. In this he is mistaken, for the Scarabæus Mimas is a species peculiar to America; but the
- ↑ Pliny, Hist. Nat., book il. chap. 34.
- ↑ Latreille, Mémoires, pp. 148, 153. Compare Descript. de l'Égypte, vol. iii. p.34.
the elytra, which are also of a different form. Schœnherr, Synonymia Insect., vol. i. p. 18 ; Caillaud, Voyage à Méroë et au Fleuve Blanc, vol. iv. p. 272, Atlas d'Hist. Nat. et d'Antiq. ii. 58. p. 10.
