It appears therefore that the Melolontha Fullo of Pliny should be sought for among the Coprides, (Bousiers,) or among the Cetoniæ, and not among the Chafers.
Pliny says that the green Scarabæus possesses the property of rendering the vision more penetrating, and that engravers upon gems rest their eyes by gazing upon these insects. "Scarabæi viridis natura contuentium visum exacuit, itaque gemmarum sculptores contuitu eorum acquiescunt[1]." Marcellus Empiricus, copying Pliny, relates the same fact, but he gives us the additional information that this Scarabæus is of the colour of the emerald, "Scarabæus coloris smaragdini." This definition is exactly suitable to the Cetonia fastuosa, and to the Cetonia aurata, particularly to the former. These two species are of a beautiful golden or emerald green, but the Cetonia aurata is distinguished from the other by white spots upon the elytra ("albis guttis"); it is nine lines in length, and is frequently found in gardens, upon roses and other flowers. The great Chafer with white spots, the Melolontha Fullo of modern naturalists, is, on the contrary, rare, and is found only upon downs and in the vicinity of the sea.
From all these circumstances I conclude that the Cetonia aurata was the object of the superstition of which Pliny speaks, and is the insect to which he gives the name of Fullo.
To recapitulate: the word Spondyle, or Sphondyle, in the works of Aristotle, denotes the Cockchafer, both the perfect insect and its larva.
As employed by Pliny, who was unacquainted with the metamorphosis of the Cockchafer, Spondyle denotes only the larva of this insect, or the white worm, taken for a small serpent, which in the time of Agricola, in the sixteenth century, was still known to the Greeks by this name of Spondyle.
The "Scarabæus qui pilas volvit" of Pliny, which cured the quartan ague and was adored by the Egyptians, is the Scarabæus sacer of Linnæus, the Ateuchus sacer and Ateuchus laticollis of Fabricius, and the Ateuchus ægyptiacus of Latreille and Caillaud.
The true Scarabæus of HorapoUo, the wings of which form rays when extended, is also the same insect.
The Sacred Scarabæus, named Cantharis in Aristotle and Aristophanes, is the Ateuchus ægyptiacus.
The "Scarabæus cui sunt cornicula reflexa" of Pliny is the Ateuchus Midas, the Copris Midas, common in Egypt and brought from that country by M. Savigny.
The Scarabæus with two horns, sacred to the moon, of Horapollo, is also the Copris Midas.
- ↑ Pliny, Hist. Nat., book xxix. chap. 38. vol. viii. p. 270.
alluded to is still we believe a subject of discussion. See London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, vol. iv. p. 170.—Edit.]
