SCARABÆUS, the BEETLE, in zoology, a genus of insects of the coleoptera order: the antennae of the beetles are of a clavated figure, and fiddle longitudinally; and their legs are frequently dentated. There are 87 species; all, however, concurring in one common formation of having cases to their wings, which are the more necessary to those insects, as they often live under the surface of the earth, in holes, which they dig out by their own industry. The cases prevent the various injuries their real wings might sustain by rubbing or crusting against the sides of their abode. These, though they do not assist flight, yet keep the internal wings clean and even, and produce a loud buzzing noise when the animal rises in the air.

If we examine the formation of all animals of the beetle kind, we shall find, as in shell-fish, that their bones are placed externally, and their muscles within. These muscles are formed very much like those of quadrupeds; and are ended with such surprising strength, that, bulk for bulk, they are a thousand times stronger than those of a man. The strength of these muscles is of use in digging the animal's subterraneous abode, whither it most frequently returns, even after it becomes a winged insect capable of flying. Besides the difference which results from the shape and colour of these animals, the size also makes a considerable one; some beetles being not larger than the head of a pin; while others, such as the elephant beetle, are as big as one's fist. But the greatest difference among them is, that some are produced in a month, and in a single season go through all the stages of their existence; while others take near four years to their production, and live as winged insects a year more.

The may-bug, or dorri-beetle, as some call it, has, like all the rest, a pair of cases to its wings, which are of a reddish brown colour, sprinkled with a whitish dust, which easily comes off. In some years their necks are seen covered with a red plate, and in others with a black; these, however, are distinct sorts, and their difference is by no means accidental. The fore-legs are very short, and the better calculated for burrowing in the ground, where this insect makes its retreat. It is well known for its evening buzz, to children; but still more formidably introduced to the acquaintance of the husbandman and gardener, for in some seasons it has been found to swarm in such numbers as to eat up every vegetable production.

The two sexes in the may-bug are easily distinguished from each other, by the superior length of the tufts, at the end of the horns, in the male. They begin to copulate in summer, and at that season they are seen joined together for a considerable time. The female being impregnated, quickly falls to boring a hole into the ground, where to deposit her burden. This is generally about half a foot deep; and in it she places her eggs, which are of an oblong shape, with great regularity, one by the other. They are of a bright yellow colour, and noway wrapped up in a common covering, as some have imagined. When the female is lightened of her burden, she again ascends from her hole, to live, as before, upon leaves and vegetables, to buzz in the summer evening, and to lie hid among the branches of trees in the heat of the day.

In about three months after these eggs have been thus deposited in the earth, the contained insect begins to break its shell, and a small grub or maggot crawls forth, and feeds upon the roots of whatever vegetable it happens to be nearest. All substances, of this kind, seem equally grateful; yet it is probable the mother insect has a choice among what kind of vegetables she shall deposit her young. In this manner these voracious creatures continue in the worm state for more than three years, devouring the roots of every plant they approach, and making their way under ground in quest of food with great dispatch and facility. At length they grow to above the size of a walnut, being a great thick white maggot with a red head, which is seen most frequently in new turned earth, and which is so eagerly sought after by birds of every species. When largest, they are found an inch and a half long, of a whitish yellow colour; with a body consisting of twelve segments or joints, on each side of which there are nine breathing holes, and three red feet. The head is larger in proportion to the body, of a reddish colour, with a pincer before, and a semicircular lip, with which it cuts the roots of plants and sucks out their moisture. As this insect lives entirely under ground, it has no occasion for eyes, and accordingly it is found to have none; but is furnished with two feelers, which, like the crutch of a blind man, serve to direct its motions. Such is the form of this animal, that lives for years in the worm state under ground, till voracious, and every year changing its skin.

It is not till the end of the fourth year, that this extraordinary insect prepares to emerge from its subterraneous abode, and even this is not effected but by a tedious preparation. About the latter end of autumn, the grub begins to perceive the approaches of its transformation; it then buries itself deeper and deeper in the earth, sometimes six feet beneath the surface; and there forms itself a capacious apartment, the walls of which it renders very smooth and shining, by the excretions of its body. Its abode being thus formed, it begins soon after to shorten itself, to swell, and to bury its last skin in order to assume the form of a chrysalis. This, in the beginning, appears of a yellowish colour, which heightens by degrees, till at last it is seen nearly red. Its exterior form plainly discovers all the vestiges of the future winged insect, all the fore parts being distinctly seen; while, behind, the animal seems as if wrapped in swaddling cloths.

The young may-bug continues in this state for about three months longer; and it is not till the beginning of January that the aurelia divests itself of all its impediments, and becomes a winged insect completely formed. Yet still the animal is far from attaining its natural strength, health, and appetite. It undergoes a kind of infantile imbecility; and unlike most other insects, that the instant they become flies are arrived at their state of full perfection, the may-bug continues feeble and sickly. Its colour is much brighter than in the perfect animal; all its parts are soft; and its voracious nature seems for a while to have entirely forsaken it. As the animal is very often found in this state, it is supposed, by those unacquainted with its real history, that the old ones, of the former season, have buried themselves for the winter, in order to revisit the sun the ensuing summer. But the fact is, the old one never survives the season; but dies, like all the other winged tribe of insects, from the severity of cold in winter.

About the latter end of May, these insects, after having lived for four years under ground, burst from the earth when the first mild evening invites them abroad. They are at that time seen rising from their long imprisonment, from living only upon roots, and imbibing only the moisture of the earth, to visit the mildness of the summer air, to choose the sweetest vegetables for their banquet, and to drink the dew of the evening. Wherever an attentive observer then walks abroad, he will see them hurrying up before him in his pathway, like ghosts on a theatre. He will see every part of the earth, that had its surface beaten into hardness, perforated by their egg-laying. When the season is favourable for them, they are seen by myriads buzzing along, hitting against every object that intercepts their flight. The mid-day sun, however, seems too powerful for their constitutions; they then lurk under the leaves and branches of some shady tree; but the willow seems particularly their most Scarabaeus, favourite food; there they lurk in clusters, and seldom quit the tree till they have devoured all its verdure. In those seasons which are favourable to their propagation, they are seen in an evening as thick as flakes of snow, and hitting against every object with a sort of capricious blindness. Their duration, however, is but short, as they never survive the season. They begin to join shortly after they have been let loose from their prison; and when the female is impregnated, she cautiously bores a hole in the ground, with an instrument fitted for that purpose which she is furnished with at the tail; and there deposits her eggs, generally to the number of three score. If the season and the soil be adapted to their propagation, these soon multiply as already described, and go through the various stages of their contemptible existence. This insect, however, in its worm state, though prejudicial to man, makes one of the chief repasts of the feathered tribe, and is generally the first nourishment with which they supply their young. Rooks are particularly fond of these worms, and devour them in great numbers. The inhabitants of the county of Norfolk, some time since, went into the practice of destroying their rookeries; but in proportion as they destroyed one plague, they were pestered with another; and these insects multiplied in such an amazing abundance, as to destroy not only the verdure of the fields, but even the roots of vegetables not yet shot forth. One farm in particular was so injured by them in the year 1751, that the occupier was not able to pay his rent; and the landlord was not only content to lose his income for that year, but also gave money for the support of the farmer and his family. In Ireland they suffered so much by these insects, that they came to a resolution of setting fire to a wood, of some extent, to prevent their mischievous propagation.

The scarabaeus carmifex, which the Americans call the tumble-dung, particularly demands our attention; it is all over of a dusky black, rounder than those animals are generally found to be, and so strong, though not much larger than the common black beetle, that if one of them be put under a brass candlestick, it will cause it to move backwards and forwards, as if it were by an invisible hand, to the admiration of those who are not accustomed to the sight: but this strength is given it for much more useful purposes than those of exciting human curiosity; for there is no creature more laborious, either in seeking subsistence, or providing a proper retreat for its young. They are endowed with sagacity to discover subsistence by their excellent smelling, which directs them in flights to excrements just fallen from man or beasts, on which they instantly drop, and fall unanimously to work in forming round balls or pellets thereof, in the middle of which they lay an egg. These pellets, in September, they convey three feet deep in the earth, where they lie till the approach of spring, when the eggs are hatched and bury their nests, and the insects find their way out of the earth. They assist each other with indefatigable industry in rolling these globular pellets to the place where they are to be buried. This they are to perform with the tail foremost, by raising up their hinder part, and shoving along the ball with their hind-feet. They are always accompanied with other beetles of a larger size, and of a more elegant structure and colour. The breast of this is covered with a shield of a crimson colour, and shining like metal; the head is of the like colour, mixed with green; and on the crown of the head stands a shining black horn, bending backwards. These are called the kings of the beetles; but for what reason is uncertain, since they partake of the same dirty drudgery with the rest.

The elephant-beetle is the largest of this kind hitherto known; and is found in South-America, particularly in Guinea and Surinam, as well as about the river Oronooko. It is of a black colour; and the whole body is covered with a very hard shell, full 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 proboscis or trunk, four inches and three quarters. The transverse diameter of the body is two inches and a quarter; and the breadth of each elytron, or case for the wings, is an inch and three tenths. The antennae or feelers are quite horny; for which reason the proboscis or trunk is movable at its insertion into the head, and seems to supply the place of feelers; the horns are eight-tenths of an inch long, and terminate in points. The proboscis is an inch and a quarter long, and turns upwards; making a crooked line, terminating in two horns, each of which is near a quarter of an inch long; but they are not perforated at the end like the proboscis of other insects. About four tenths of an inch above the head, or that side next the body, 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 so called; but then the horns or trunk has no fork at the end, though the lower horn resembles this. The feet are all forked at the end, but not like lobsters claws. See Plate CCLVII.