Scarab beetle
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? Scarab beetles |
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 A dung beetle busy rolling its ball of dung
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Genera
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| not a complete list Agestrata Anoplognathus Augosoma Canthon Chrysina Chalcosoma Chelorrhina Cheirolasia Cheirotonus Cotinis Dynastes Eudicella Goliathus Megsoma Onthophagus Pachnoda Phanaeus Plusiotis Ranzania Rhomborrhina Stephanorrhina Xylotrupes |
The scarab is a type of beetle noted for rolling dung into spherical balls and pushing it, as well as its habit of laying its eggs in animal dung. Because most of the scarab species work with dung they are commonly referred to as dung beetles.
The dung beetles are classified as family Scarabaeidae, which includes over 26,000 species in numerous genera, including the African genus Goliathus, among the largest and heaviest of the beetles. Dung beetles live in many different habitats, including desert, farmland, forest, and grasslands. They do not like extremely cold or dry weather. They occur on all continents except Antarctica.
The majority of the dung beetle diet is dung. They will eat dung from a variety of animals as long as the animal is herbivorous. Dung beetles also feed on mushrooms, leaves, and decaying matter. Dung beetles do not need to eat anything else because the dung provides all the nutrients; they do not even need to drink water. The larvae feeds on the undigested plant fiber in the dung, while the adults don't eat solid food at all. Instead they are using their mouthparts to squeeze and suck the juice from the manure, a liquid full of microorganisms and other nutrients (as well as the body fluids from some unlucky animals like dung feeding fly maggots who sometimes gets trapped between their mandibles).
The dung beetle body consists of head, abdomen, and thorax. They have legs, located on the thorax, that are specialized for shoveling dung and rolling it along.
The dung beetle has complete metamorphosis. The female will lay an egg in a dung ball which will then be buried to protect it from erosion and predators. During the larval stage the dung beetle will feed on the dung surrounding it.
The Scarabs of Ancient Egypt
The distinctive behaviour of the scarab beetle — rolling of dung balls, skill in digging, and its hidden metamorphosis from grub to winged adult — inspired ancient Egyptians to use its image to represent concepts of change and rebirth.
| ḫpr in hieroglyphs |
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The hieroglyphic image of the scarab is believed to represent a trilateral phonetic that Egyptologists transliterate as xpr or ḫpr and translate as “come into being”, “become” or “transform”. The derivative term xprw or ḫpr(w) is variously translated as “form”, “transformation”, “happening”, “mode of being” or “what has come into being” depending on context; it may have existential, fictional, or ontologic significance. For the ancient Egyptians the divine form or archetypal image of the concept was Khepri, xprr or Ḫprr, “he who has come into being”.
The image of the scarab, encoding ideas of transformation, renewal, and resurrection, is ubiquitous in ancient Egyptian religious and funerary art.
Excavations of ancient Egyptian sites have yielded images of the scarab beetle in bone, ivory, stone, Egyptian faience, and precious metals, dating from the Sixth Dynasty through Roman rule. They are generally small items, bored to allow stringing on a necklace, and the base bears a brief inscription or cartouche. Some have been used as seals. Pharaohs sometimes commissioned the manufacture of larger images with lengthy inscriptions, such as the commemorative scarab of Queen Tiye. Massive sculptures of scarabs can be seen at Luxor Temple, at the Serapeum in Alexandria (see Serapis) and elsewhere in Egypt.
Many authors state that the ancient Egyptians believed the sun was rolled across the sky by a scarab, and the dawning sun was often depicted in the form of Khepri. Some New Kingdom royal tombs exhibit a threefold image of the sun god, using the scarab as symbol of the morning sun. The astronomical ceiling in the tomb of Ramses VI portrays the nightly ‘death’ and ‘rebirth’ of the sun as being swallowed by Nuit, goddess of night, and re-emerging from her womb as Khepri.
The scarab was of prime significance in the funerary cult. Scarabs, generally though not always cut from green stone, were placed on the chest of the deceased. Perhaps the most famous example of such 'heart scarabs' is the yellow-green pectoral scarab found among the grave goods of Tutankhamen, carved from a large piece of Libyan desert glass. The purpose of the 'heart scarab' was to ensure that the heart would not bear witness against the deceased at judgement in the Afterlife. Other possibilities are suggested by the "transformation spells" of the Coffin Texts, which affirm that the soul of the deceased may transform (xpr) into the semblance of a human being, a god, or a bird and reappear in the world of the living.
One scholar comments on other traits of the scarab connected with the theme of death and rebirth: “It may not have gone unnoticed that the pupa, whose wings and legs are encased at this stage of development, is very mummy-like. It has even been pointed out that the egg-bearing ball of dung is created in an underground chamber which is reached by a vertical shaft and horizontal passage curiously reminiscent of Old Kingdom mastaba tombs.” (Andrews, Amulets of Ancient Egypt, p. 51.)
The scarab remains an item of popular interest thanks to modern fascination with the art and beliefs of ancient Egypt. Scarab beads in semiprecious stones or glazed ceramics can be purchased at most bead shops, while at Luxor Temple a massive ancient scarab has been roped off to discourage visitors from rubbing the base of the statue “for luck”.
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