Scarab beetles are the orderlies of sandy soils. Scarab beetle - description and meaning of the talisman Do scarabs eat people
On the plains African continent, where many herbivores live, including many large mammals, there will always be food for beetles. The same elephant eats about two hundred and fifty kilograms of food a day, and after a while returns it back in the form of huge dung heaps. We can say that Africa (and other places on our planet) has not yet gotten bogged down in a huge layer of dung only thanks to the huge number of dung beetles, among which the sacred Egyptian beetle scarab.
The scarab beetle belongs to the class of insects, the order of Coleoptera of the lamellar family, one of the characteristics of which is special shape the structure of the antennae, which is characterized by a plate-shaped pin that can open in the form of a fan.
Currently, scientists have discovered more than a hundred representatives of this genus living in arid areas with sandy soils: deserts, semi-deserts, dry steppes, and savannas. Most are found only in tropical Africa: in the Palearctic (the region that covers Europe, Asia north of the Himalayas, as well as North Africa to southern border Sahara) is home to about twenty species, while in Western Hemisphere and in Australia they are completely absent.
Description
The length of scarab beetles ranges from 9.5 to 41 mm. Most of them are black; very rarely there is an insect with a silver-metallic tone. As the beetle matures, it acquires a shiny sheen. A male can be distinguished from a female thanks to his hind legs, with inside covered with reddish-golden fringe.
The body shape of scarabs is wide, oval, large, slightly convex, covered with an exoskeleton (a durable chitinous covering that acts as an external skeleton). The beetle's head is transverse in shape and has a clypeus with six teeth.
The insect's pronotum is simple, strongly transverse, granular in structure, finely serrated at the base and sides. Elytra with six grooves, twice as long as pronotum, base without border, characteristic granular structure. At the base, the posterior section of the abdomen has a border.
On the abdomen and legs (it has three pairs of legs in total) there are long dark hairs. The front legs are digging, have four external teeth, the part at the base on the outside is finely serrated. The middle and hind tibiae are thin, long, slightly curved, while the tarsi become denser closer to the body.
Way of life and nutrition
In mid-latitudes, the scarab beetle appears in mid-spring and is active during the day as long as it is cold at night. In summer, when it is much warmer at night, it switches to night look life. The insect was nicknamed the sandy soil sanator (one might even say, a kind of waste disposal specialist) for good reason: almost its entire life is centered around the main source of food - manure.
About four thousand scarabs usually flock to one fresh, medium-sized pile of manure and in an hour they completely pull it away (if they hesitate, the manure will dry out and the ball will not form).
They do it quite in an interesting way: using the teeth on the head, and the front paws instead of a shovel and a chisel. Balls are made from dung, the size of which often exceeds the disposal beetle.
When forming a ball, they take a round piece of manure as a basis, after which, clasping it with their middle and hind legs, they do not release it until the end of the work. After this, having settled on top, the beetle begins to turn in different directions, separating with the edge of its head the particles of manure surrounding it, while its front paws pick them up, bring them to the ball and press it into it, now from below, now from above, now from the sides, until it reaches the required size.
An insect can roll a formed ball in search of a shaded corner of the earth for several tens of meters, and the further it moves away from the heap, the faster it rolls its prey. If a beetle gets distracted for some reason, the ball it has made is quite capable of being taken away and appropriated by its relatives, so there are often disputes over the right to own the finished prey. brutal fighting. During this time, smaller species of dung beetles can settle in the balls, and if there are too many of them there, the ball will be useless for the owner.
Having found a suitable place, the beetle, having made a hole, rolls it down, buries it, settles next to it, and until it eats it (usually it takes about two weeks), it does not leave the place, after which it again goes in search of new food.
Reproduction
While the insect is young, it makes a ball only for its food. But quite soon (they live about three months) a beetle of the opposite sex is connected to it, as a result of which a pair is formed: the insects begin to work together and prepare food not so much for themselves as for their offspring.
To do this, they dig holes, the depth of which ranges from 10 to 30 cm (they create as many nests as the female is going to lay eggs). Upon completion of the work, the male leaves the hole, and the female begins to sculpt oval-shaped dung figures (ovoids). In the narrower part, she makes a depression in which she places an oval-shaped egg (10 x 5 mm), after which the entrance to the hole is filled up.
The egg stage of a waste beetle lasts from 5 to 12 days, after which it turns into a larva, which constantly feeds on the food prepared by the parents, while it does not touch the walls of the ovoid.
After a month, the larva turns into a pupa, the stage of which lasts about two weeks. Young insects emerging from pupae do not leave their nests for some time, and if the species lives in temperate latitudes, then they stay there until spring.
Relationships with people
They realized how useful these insects are back in Ancient Egypt, when they saw that black beetles destroy manure and rotten food, clearing the earth of decay products (an important job in a sultry, hot and dry climate).
Therefore, for more than one millennium, they revered and worshiped the golden scarab as an insect that belonged to the Sun God himself. It was a symbol of rebirth in the afterlife: for the inhabitants of ancient Egypt, rolling the ball symbolized the movement of the luminary across the sky, and the teeth located on the head reminded them Sun rays. It is not surprising that the golden scarab was often found in ancient Egyptian temples.
In addition to the fact that it was considered the animal of the main deity, there was also a cult of the scarab god Kheper, who was the god of health and longevity, in Ancient Egypt. Therefore, stone and metal figurines of Kheper were found in many tombs, as well as many medallions depicting a golden scarab.
These beetles are still used successfully today. So, some time ago after the insects of Australia and South America for some reason, they could no longer cope with the huge amount of manure produced by livestock, it was decided to use scarabs for this, as a result of which the beetles were brought to these continents. Despite the fact that the insects did not take root here, they completed their task.
Scarab in ancient Egyptian - "khepri" . The name Khepri was borne by the ancient Egyptian god of the rising sun, the creator of the world and man, who was depicted in the form of a scarab or as a man with the head of a scarab. Why did the scarab beetle become a symbol and personification of the Egyptian solar deity?
Who is he - the sacred scarab?
Scarab beetles (lat. Scarabaeus sacer) are often found on the coasts of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, in the South and Eastern Europe, on the Arabian Peninsula, in Crimea, Turkey and, of course, in Egypt.
The scarab is a matte black insect with a round, smooth body 25–35 cm long. Old scarabs become shiny black. On the head of the beetle there is a frontal protrusion and eyes, divided into upper and lower parts. Each leg of the scarab has spurs with which it digs into the ground. Their gender differences are weakly expressed. The lower part of the body is covered with dark brown hairs. Scarabs live for about two years; they spend almost their entire lives underground, emerging to the surface at night. Scarabs overwinter, burrowing into the ground to a depth of 2 meters. The flight of beetles from the ground to the surface begins in March and lasts until mid-July.
The main feature of beetles is their feeding method. Scarabs are dung beetles and feed on the dung of large cattle- cows, horses, sheep.
The ancient Egyptians noticed the unusual behavior of scarabs: as soon as a herd of horses or a herd of cows passed along the road, leaving behind heaps of manure, a whole swarm of black scarab beetles immediately flew there. Each of them begins to diligently make balls of dung, rolling them along the road, gradually turning them into an almost ideal sphere, often exceeding the size and weight of the scarab itself, and bury the dung ball in the ground, then use it as food and as a nutrient medium for offspring.
Pairs of scarabs are formed during the process of preparing dung balls. The “Sisyphean labor” of the male scarab attracts the female and they jointly look for a suitable place, dig a hole in the ground 15–30 cm deep. After mating, the male leaves, and the female begins to roll pear-shaped balls, lays eggs in this nutrient medium, and fills the hole with earth , pouring a “pyramid” on top.
After 1–2 weeks, the beetle larvae hatch. For a month, the offspring of the scarab eat the food that their parents have prepared for them, and then the larvae are reborn into pupae . In unfavorable weather, the pupae remain in the burrow for the winter. In spring, young beetles leave their burrows and come to the surface. The scarab appears underground to live on the ground and in the air - after all, these beetles fly perfectly!
This unique scarab beetle is widespread in Western Europe, North Africa And Central Asia, became ancient magical symbol, in religion is not only for the Egyptians. The scarab was “deified” by many African tribes, and the ancient peoples of the Caucasus. However, it was in Ancient Egypt that the cult of the scarab acquired a truly epic scale.
Where do the ancient Egyptian myths about scarabs come from?
Scarab beetle ancient Egypt became sacred symbol, approximately to the 3rd millennium BC.
A researcher of ancient petroglyphs in the Maharashtra region of India, scientist Bibhu Dev Misra, discovered a unique Scarab petroglyph created around 7000 BC. Mister Misra states that the ancient petroglyph predates the early dates of ancient Egyptian civilization by approximately for four thousand years.
goddess Hat-hor = “House-Mountain” - great mother -3400-2920. BC.
The sign of the Scarab represents Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major, which is a classic winter constellation for the northern hemisphere. The goddess contacted Sirius Hat-hor (“house of Horus”, i.e. “sky”) , depicted as a cow with Sirius between its horns.
Bibhu Dev Misra writes in his article that the petroglyphs he found indicate a more ancient system of astrological ideas about the celestial sphere and attributes the emergence constellation symbols to the period around 10,000 BC. Perhaps our astrological knowledge is the legacy of a lost civilization that flourished during the Ice Age.
Mister Misra suggests that ancient petroglyphs may reflect "esoteric knowledge about ancient civilization"Golden Age" humanity, who perished during the cataclysms of the Younger Dryas era (10,900 BC - 9700 BC), when our planet was struck by numerous fragments of a giant comet.
Ancient petroglyphs recently discovered in Maharashtra likely indicate the existence of some extremely ancient forgotten culture, predating by thousands of years any traditional civilization known in history. whose symbolism is reflected in the sacred myths and scriptures of later cultures and civilizations throughout the world.
“Scarab” is a symbol of the movement of the sun, its creative and life-giving power.
While observing the scarabs, the Egyptians noticed interesting feature –the beetles always roll their balls from east to west, and fly only at noon. The attentive Egyptians saw in this connection between beetles and the sun. The sun travels its way from east to west and disappears behind the horizon, only to appear in the east again tomorrow.
According to the ideas of the ancient Egyptians, the sun was a deity who brought life to all living things and resurrection after death. The Egyptians correlated the development cycle of the scarab inside a ball of dung and its release to the surface of the earth in the spring with the movement of the sun.
The similarity struck the ancient Egyptians so much that they began to personify the rising sun with the god Khepri (Khepera, Khaper) , depicting him with a scarab instead of a head.
Personifying rising morning sun with the god Khepri (hpr - “emerged”, from hpr - “to arise, happen”), the Egyptians worshiped the god Ra (ancient Egyptian: ri-a; Copt.: Re (reɪ) or Rē) - the day sun and the god Atum ( Egyptian - tm) - to the evening, setting sun.
Khepri partially took over the functions of the god of the solar disk Aten. Khepri was identified with Atum, Pa(Ra-Khepri) , Amon(Amun-Khepri).
Atum-Khepri in the Pyramid Texts is named the creator of Osiris (Egyptian jst jrt, Usir) - the god of rebirth, king of the underworld and judge of the souls of the departed.
It was believed that Khepri arose from itself (“ he appeared in his name"), Sometimes his father is called the “father of the gods” Nun (Ancient Egyptian “nwn” - “water”, “aquatic”). In ancient Egyptian mythology, the father of the gods Nun existed at the beginning of time, as the primordial ocean from which Ra emerged and began the creation of the world Atum.
The meaning of the sacred symbol of the scarab has probably not changed over thousands of years, because archaeologists have found scarabs, rings and amulets in various cultural layers of excavations. The scarab was often combined with other sacred images. For example, in the Cairo Museum you can see many ankhs, which, among other symbols, depict sacred scarabs.
The scarab became in Egypt a symbol of the hard-working student on his path to wisdom. Just as the scarab persistently and persistently transforms the shapeless, viscous mass of dung into a ball in order to plant the seeds of life in it, so the disciple walking along the Path of Wisdom must transform the shapeless mass of his shortcomings into the ideal, perfect form of a ball, like the sun's disk disappearing beyond the horizon of the earth and newly born in the east.
Even from the deepest underground darkness, where the scarab leaves a clutch, its offspring are born again, awakening and resurrecting, like divine power and wisdom, giving the newly born Soul the opportunity to fly into new life on the ground.
Next to the scarab are depicted two serpents of wisdom, right and left, the student takes from each of them and forms his own wisdom.
The most valuable, ancient and revered scarab figure can be found in the Karnak Temple, which is located near Luxor. In Luxor there is a statue of a sacred scarab; this place is especially revered by local residents.
Scarabs appeared in the painting of funerary sarcophagi around 1000 BC. Scarabs are often depicted rolling fire ball the sun, a symbol of the cyclical nature of the universe and eternal life. Dried scarab beetles were often placed in faience pylons, which apparently served as original funeral decorations , which were considered amulets that guarantee resurrection from the dead.
The role of the scarab in the life of Ancient Egypt.
The Egyptians had poetic religious texts that called scarab by the god that lives in the heart and protects Inner Light person. Sacral the scarab symbol gradually became a link between the divine principle and the human soul.
There are many spells associated with the scarab beetle, preserved in the Sarcophagus Texts and the Pyramid Texts. It is known that the Egyptians performed a lot magical rituals associated with the scarab.
The symbol of the sacred scarab accompanied the ancient Egyptians all their lives and passed with them into the afterlife. If the body after death mummified, like a scarab pupa, then instead of a heart they put an image sacred beetle. Without it, the resurrection of the soul in the afterlife could not occur. The ancient Egyptians understood the importance of the heart in the human body and, by placing an image of a sacred beetle in its place, they believed that it represented the primary impulse for the rebirth of the soul. Somewhat later, instead of a figurine of a scarab beetle, the Egyptians made a heart from ceramics, and the names of the gods were depicted next to the symbol of the sacred beetle.
This scarab was found in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (1340-1331 BC), discovered by Howard Carter in November 1922. Pharaoh Tutankhamun died at the age of 19, his mummy in a golden sarcophagus and mask was placed in 2 wooden coffins. Another 3 sarcophagi of Tutankhamun were made of quartzite, covered with red granite. Around the sarcophagus there were four golden wooden chapels that occupied the entire room.
This amulet, decorated with the symbol of the sun god - an oval stone yellow color, interested scientists from the Milan Museum of Natural History. Researchers saw in this stone the key to solving one of the mysteries of the Sahara Desert.
The yellow stone used by Howard the discoverer of Tutankhamun's tomb Carter considered it semi-precious chalcedony, in fact it turned out to be natural glass with extraordinary properties- it begins to melt at 1700 degrees Celsius, which is 500 degrees higher than the melting point of other natural glass samples. It turns out that whole placers of such glass were found in the Egyptian Sahara, from small pieces to blocks weighing 26 kilograms.
If this special glass is heated red hot and thrown into cold water, it won't crack. That is, in terms of its characteristics, this natural silicate glass is superior to many modern high-tech glasses.
This unusual natural glass was encountered back in the 30s of the last century by expeditions traveling around the Sahara in search of treasures of ancient civilizations and lost cities. According to experts, only More than 1,400 tons of this pure yellow-green glass are scattered in the Saad plateau area. Some of the natural glass samples found have swirling black patterns. The high content of iridium in glass indicates their extraterrestrial origin. Iridium found in some meteorites and comets. Scientists have hypothesized that in ancient times a large meteorite similar to Tunguska exploded over the Sahara. At the same time, from high temperature The silicate-rich sands of the Sahara melted and turned into glass.
This space meteorite glass has been used by people for a long time. Explorers of the Sahara Desert often find knives, hatchets, and arrowheads made from this material almost 100 thousand years ago.
Before the discovery of the scarab in the tomb, no one suspected that the ancient Egyptians knew about the extraordinary glass of the great sand sea, many kilometers from the nearest habitation. The scarab remains the only silicate glass jewel discovered among the treasures of Ancient Egypt.
What do amulets with a scarab mean in our time?
At all times, people believed in the miraculous power of various amulets that brought good luck, wealth, and happiness. Egyptian talismans among them are considered the most powerful, but safe for humans.
The scarab beetle talisman is one of the most revered. The scarab is considered a symbol of life, keeping its owner youthful and beautiful.
Initially, amulets were made from stones, both precious and ornamental. Green granite, marble, basalt or ceramics were used, which, after drying, were covered with green or blue azure. Nowadays tourists are offered metal amulets decorated with stones.
The sacred scarab (lat. Scarabaeus sacer) is a beetle of the Lamellar family (lat. Scarabaeidae), common in Northern and East Africa, as well as in southern Europe and South-West Asia.
Because of their habit of rolling dung into balls and rolling them towards their homes, scarabs have been associated since time immemorial with the forces that move the Sun across the sky.
In Ancient Egypt, they became sacred insects, which were considered the incarnation of the god Khepri, responsible for the movement of the Sun. Khepri was depicted as a beetle or a man with the head of a beetle and represented new life and resurrection from the dead.
The Egyptians produced huge quantities of amulets depicting scarabs. They were made from clay, faience, stone, ivory and metal. The image of the scarab was on the seals used to seal documents and seal doors.
It was customary to give way to him, and the deliberate murder of a sacred insect was considered as an encroachment on the foundations of the universe and could cost the villain his life.
Behavior
The sacred scarab lives mainly in hot semi-deserts with dry sandy soils, avoiding saline areas. Adult beetles emerge en masse in early spring, emerging from the ground.
They fly well, so they gather in friendly flocks and roam noisily around the surrounding area following migrating herds of ungulates. They pick up the smell of manure from a distance of several kilometers and unmistakably flock to the feast.
Each beetle tries to quickly grab a larger tasty morsel and hide it in a shelter away from its eternally hungry relatives. To deliver a treat to a secluded place, it uses its long hind legs to form an impressive ball of dung and begins to quickly push it.
Scarabs are unusually strong and easily roll balls several dozen times their own weight. Typically, a dung ball has a diameter of up to 8 cm.
A tunnel dug underground serves as a reliable refuge for a tireless worker. The length of the tunnel can reach one meter. Having reached home, the beetle buries itself in the ground along with its prey and feeds on it for several days.
Some individuals specialize only in feces a certain type animals, and categorically disdain the products of others. Elephant dung is considered a special delicacy among them.
Curious biologists, after painstaking practical research, discovered that in one standard elephant heap weighing about 100 kg, on average, almost 16,000 scarabs enjoy life. Each of them can bury a portion of manure into the ground overnight, the weight of which is 250 times greater than its own weight.
Reproduction
The first romantic date of beetles in love takes place, naturally, on a dung heap. The gallant gentleman presents the chosen one of his heart with a large, especially carefully rolled dung ball. If the beauty’s heart trembles at the sight of such a yummy, then she joins the male, and together they begin to roll the ball towards the male’s shelter.
From time to time, she, overwhelmed with surging feelings, climbs onto the ball, giving her admirer the honorable right to work for two. Having reached the dwelling, the young wife, as the hostess, is the first to enter the tunnel previously dug by her husband and begins to dig side chambers in it.
At this time, the happy male tirelessly rolls home more and more portions of crap. The female transforms the delivered balls into peculiar “pears”. She lays one egg at a time in the narrow part of the “pear” and carefully places them in the nests. Each nest can contain up to 5 eggs.
The female carefully seals the openings of the tubules in which the eggs are located with her feces. Her restless husband, using the motto: “If you’ve done the job, go for a walk!”, goes in search of his next passion.
A caring mother stands alone for 2 months near the clutch, removing larval feces and cleaning the burrow from mold.
During this time, the larvae undergo three stages of development. When food supplies run out, they wisely pupate.
Next spring or after heavy autumn rains Adult beetles emerge from the pupae. The first thing they do is eat the remains of their “pears” and, having had a good meal, crawl to the surface and begin an independent life.
Description
The body length of an adult sacred scarab reaches 2.6-3.7 cm. The body is protected by a thick shell with longitudinal grooves.
The color is dark, with a greenish or black metallic tint. The head is flat and resembles a shovel. Powerful mandibles have turned into tiny shovels, allowing them to dig deep tunnels underground.
Short antennas are branched into several plates. The wide tibiae of the first pair of front legs are equipped with large teeth and are used for digging the ground. The strong and long third pair of limbs is adapted to hold and roll a dung ball.
Long transparent wings are hidden under the shell of the elytra. The elytra are rigid and cover the second pair of wings.
Scarab beetles belong to the subfamily of dung beetles, which are part of the family of lamellar beetles of the suborder of heteroptera beetles from the order Coleoptera, or simply beetles. Since time immemorial, many scarab beetles have inhabited the banks of the Nile, where they brought great benefits to society, being a kind of orderlies. The ancient Egyptians imbued scarab beetles with supernatural powers and considered them sacred, along with bulls, jackals and ibises. And this is not surprising, since at the dawn of civilization our ancestors deified many natural phenomena and worshiped various gods, which they often identified with representatives of the animal and plant kingdoms. The scarab beetle, also known as the god Kheper, was depicted either as a beetle standing on a circle, or as a creature with the body of a man and the head of a beetle, just as Anubis was depicted as a man with the head of a jackal, Thoth with the head of an ibis, and Horus with the head of a falcon. The scarab god Kheper was also often identified by the ancient Egyptians with the sun god Ra. But I don’t want to detain your attention too long on ancient Egyptian mythology - it’s enough for us to know that the scarab, according to the Egyptians, had a number of supernatural properties. The ancient Egyptians could not help but notice the benefits that scarab beetles brought, destroying rotting food, clearing the earth of everything old and dying, and thereby giving rise to a new life. In this regard, Kheper, or the scarab god, was revered in ancient Egypt as the god of health and longevity. Metal or stone figurines of this god were placed next to the body of the deceased. Excavations rarely come across tombs that do not contain images of the scarab god. from a coleopterological point of view, the Scarab beetle does not pose a danger to humans =) if you plunge into history, you can find out that the Scarab was a sacred insect, it even received the honor of being buried in the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs, if, of course, this can be called luck =) In other words, if it was classified as a sacred insect, seeing in it a symbol of the movement of the sun, then it should not pose a danger to you. I recently bought an oracle stage magazine, there was something written about scarabs, if it is gold it is very good, it increases wealth, you need to wear it on the neck covering the solar plexus, wooden - love, real African passions, a scarab with outstretched wings - power and wealth, worn on the index finger, if there is a beetle on the handle of a cane - a person acquires great spiritual abilities, something like a priest or a magician, but there is a lot of time necessary, although worth it, jade is for the weak-willed, so if they planted it on you, in my opinion it’s not so bad, clean it and wear it as a talisman In a forgotten land< Рахул Санкритьяян Жуки-скарабеи принадлежат к подсемейству навозных жуков, входящих в семейство пластинчатоусых подотряда разноядных жуков из отряда жесткокрылых, или просто жуков. С незапамятных времен множество жуков-скарабеев населяло берега Нила, где они.. .
Scarabaeus sacer Linnaeus,
Description
Black, matte (old worn beetles become shiny) beetle 25-37 mm long. The underparts and legs are covered with dark brown hairs, the fringe on the inner edge of the male's hind tibia is golden-red. All notches between the teeth of the clypeus are semicircular, the middle one is slightly wider than the lateral ones. The eyes are large, their upper lobes are noticeable, and the lower lobes are much larger than the antennal club. The frontal carina is weak, widely interrupted in the middle and always with two sharp conical tubercles. The clypeus has cellular-wrinkled punctures, the back of the cheeks and the vertex are covered with grains that vary greatly in size and density. The pronotum is strongly transverse with broadly rounded and roughly serrated sides, its base with a weak groove along the basal row of large shiny tubercles and short setae, the disc is finely shagreened and has sparse irregular grains, partly mixed with punctures. The number and size of dots and grains is highly variable. The middle and hind tibiae are only slightly widened in front of the apices. Sexual dimorphism: the male has a fringe of dense golden-red hairs on the inner edge of the hind tibia, which are absent in females; The female's pygidium is more convex than that of the male.
Area
Features of biology
Lives on sandy soils, avoids saline areas. Flight and rolling of dung balls from mid-March to the end of July, mainly at night. It feeds on the droppings of cattle and horses. Doesn't climb high into the mountains. Typical inhabitants of arid landscapes with hot and dry summers. The beetles appear in the spring and while the nights are cold, they are active during the hot part of the day. In summer, most species switch to a nocturnal lifestyle, when intensive flight to light sources begins. Beetles, flocking to piles of dung, make balls from it different sizes, sometimes significantly exceeding the size of the beetle itself. These balls roll over a distance of tens of meters and are buried in the ground in suitable places, where they are eaten by one or two beetles. Fights often arise between beetles due to the possession of a ready-made ball. In the process of rolling balls together, “married” couples are formed, beginning to work together and prepare food for their offspring. For this purpose, males and females dig burrows that end at a depth of 10-30 cm with a nesting chamber. Mating takes place in them, after which the male usually leaves the nest, and the female begins to produce one to three pear-shaped dung ovoids. A round “cradle” is placed in their narrow part and an egg is laid, after which the entrance to the burrow is filled up. The egg stage lasts 5-12 days, the larvae 30-35 days, and the pupae about two weeks. Fertilized females are capable of digging more than a dozen burrow nests during the active period. Beetles, after transforming from pupae, remain inside ovoids transformed into a “false cocoon” for a long time, until autumn or spring rains They don’t soften them, and sometimes they spend the winter in them.
In Egyptian mythology
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Egyptian amulet
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- (article by Elena Sikirich) - about the ancient Egyptian symbol
Excerpt characterizing the Sacred Scarab
– So you’re going to St. Petersburg tomorrow? – said oka.“No, I’m not going,” Pierre said hastily, with surprise and as if offended. - No, to St. Petersburg? Tomorrow; I just don't say goodbye. “I’ll come for the commissions,” he said, standing in front of Princess Marya, blushing and not leaving.
Natasha gave him her hand and left. Princess Marya, on the contrary, instead of leaving, sank into a chair and looked sternly and carefully at Pierre with her radiant, deep gaze. The fatigue she had obviously shown before was now completely gone. She took a deep, long breath, as if preparing for a long conversation.
All of Pierre's embarrassment and awkwardness, when Natasha was removed, instantly disappeared and was replaced by excited animation. He quickly moved the chair very close to Princess Marya.
“Yes, that’s what I wanted to tell you,” he said, answering her glance as if in words. - Princess, help me. What should I do? Can I hope? Princess, my friend, listen to me. I know everything. I know I'm not worthy of her; I know it's impossible to talk about it now. But I want to be her brother. No, I don't want to... I can't...
He stopped and rubbed his face and eyes with his hands.
“Well, here,” he continued, apparently making an effort on himself to speak coherently. “I don’t know since when I love her.” But I have loved only her, only one, all my life and love her so much that I cannot imagine life without her. Now I don’t dare ask her hand; but the thought that maybe she could be mine and that I would miss this opportunity... opportunity... is terrible. Tell me, can I have hope? Tell me what should I do? “Dear princess,” he said, after being silent for a while and touching her hand, since she did not answer.
“I’m thinking about what you told me,” answered Princess Marya. - I'll tell you what. You’re right, what should I tell her about love now... - The princess stopped. She wanted to say: it is now impossible to talk to her about love; but she stopped because for the third day she saw from Natasha’s sudden change that not only would Natasha not be offended if Pierre expressed his love to her, but that this was all she wanted.
“It’s impossible to tell her now,” Princess Marya said.
- But what should I do?
“Entrust this to me,” said Princess Marya. - I know…
Pierre looked into Princess Marya's eyes.
“Well, well...” he said.
“I know that she loves... will love you,” Princess Marya corrected herself.
Before she had time to say these words, Pierre jumped up and, with a frightened face, grabbed Princess Marya by the hand.
- Why do you think so? Do you think I can hope? You think?!
“Yes, I think so,” said Princess Marya, smiling. - Write to your parents. And instruct me. I'll tell her when it's possible. I wish this. And my heart feels that this will happen.
- No, this cannot be! How happy I am! But this cannot be... How happy I am! No, it can not be! - Pierre said, kissing the hands of Princess Marya.
– You go to St. Petersburg; it is better. “And I’ll write to you,” she said.
- To St. Petersburg? Drive? Okay, yes, let's go. But can I come to you tomorrow?
The next day Pierre came to say goodbye. Natasha was less animated than in previous days; but on this day, sometimes looking into her eyes, Pierre felt that he was disappearing, that neither he nor she was any more, but there was only a feeling of happiness. “Really? No, it can’t be,” he said to himself with every look, gesture, and word that filled his soul with joy.
When, saying goodbye to her, he took her thin, thin hand, he involuntarily held it in his a little longer.
“Is this hand, this face, these eyes, all this alien treasure of feminine charm, will it all be forever mine, familiar, the same as I am for myself? No, It is Immpossible!.."
“Goodbye, Count,” she said to him loudly. “I’ll be waiting for you,” she added in a whisper.
And these simple words, the look and facial expression that accompanied them, for two months formed the subject of Pierre's inexhaustible memories, explanations and happy dreams. “I will be waiting for you very much... Yes, yes, as she said? Yes, I will be waiting for you very much. Oh, how happy I am! What is this, how happy I am!” - Pierre said to himself.
Nothing now happened in Pierre's soul similar to what happened in it in similar circumstances during his matchmaking with Helen.
He did not repeat, as then, with painful shame the words he had spoken, he did not say to himself: “Oh, why didn’t I say this, and why, why did I say “je vous aime” then?” [I love you] Now, on the contrary, he repeated every word of hers, his own, in his imagination with all the details of her face, smile, and did not want to subtract or add anything: he only wanted to repeat. There was no longer even a shadow of doubt as to whether what he had undertaken was good or bad. Only one terrible doubt sometimes crossed his mind. Isn't this all in a dream? Was Princess Marya mistaken? Am I too proud and arrogant? I believe; and suddenly, as should happen, Princess Marya will tell her, and she will smile and answer: “How strange! He was probably mistaken. Doesn’t he know that he is a man, just a man, and I?.. I am completely different, higher.”
Only this doubt often occurred to Pierre. He also didn’t make any plans now. The impending happiness seemed so incredible to him that as soon as it happened, nothing could happen. It was all over.
A joyful, unexpected madness, of which Pierre considered himself incapable, took possession of him. The whole meaning of life, not for him alone, but for the whole world, seemed to him to lie only in his love and in the possibility of her love for him. Sometimes all the people seemed to him to be occupied with only one thing - his future happiness. It sometimes seemed to him that they were all as happy as he was, and were only trying to hide this joy, pretending to be busy with other interests. In every word and movement he saw hints of his happiness. He often surprised people who met him with his significant, happy looks and smiles that expressed secret agreement. But when he realized that people might not know about his happiness, he felt sorry for them with all his heart and felt a desire to somehow explain to them that everything they were doing was complete nonsense and trifles, not worth attention.