Where does the scarab live? sacred scarab

This talisman can be given to loved ones and friends. This must be done from a pure heart. At the same time, the owner needs to be told about what the beetle itself symbolized, what the meaning of the amulet is and how it should be used correctly.

The scarab beetle is a powerful talisman that gives the owner luck, love and happiness. The main thing is to choose and use it correctly. Then luck will not keep you waiting.

Sacred Scarab September 30th, 2013

Probably the most famous of the scarabs is the sacred scarab ( Scarabaeus sacer), a beetle deified by the ancient Egyptians. In the balls that the beetles roll, they saw the image of the sun with its daily movement across the sky, and in the teeth on the head and paws of the beetle - a similarity sun rays. Tombs were decorated with images of the sacred scarab, it was painted on papyri, and imprinted in stone. The beetle was honored and considered a symbol of happiness.

In the Karnak temple complex near the city of Luxor (the territory of ancient Thebes), a column crowned with a stone scarab has been preserved. According to legend, whoever walks around the column seven times and touches the beetle can make a wish - it will come true. And an endless round dance of tourists who came to look at the Karnak temples walks around the beetle. Whether their wishes come true is unknown, but the owners of numerous surrounding shops have something to thank the sacred scarab for.

Ancient legends also served science well - to a certain extent, because of them, the famous entomologist of the last century, Jean-Henri Fabre, became interested in the scarab and revealed many of its secrets. Thanks to the observations of this scientist, we have learned many interesting facts and from the life of relatives of the sacred beetle - Spanish copra, Isis copra, lunar copra and some others. It was Fabre who discovered that most of the balls that scarabs roll are their food supplies. Beetles, both males and females, not only make the balls themselves, but also steal and take them from each other. Having obtained the ball in one way or another, the beetle tries to roll it away, bury it in the ground and there, in comfort and tranquility, indulge in a meal. The scarab is very voracious, and soon it has to climb to the surface for new prey.

When the time comes to lay eggs, the females of the sacred scarab make special balls, usually from more delicate sheep dung, and one by one (beetles of a number of other species perform their parental duties together) bury them in the ground. Then an egg is laid in the ball, and this is where the female’s care for the offspring ends. When the food supply comes to an end, the larva in the ball pupates, and after about a month, an adult beetle emerges from the pupa.

Much more interesting are the family relationships of many other types of scarabs. For example, in the Spanish copra, the moon copra (C. lunaris), the males of which wear a slightly curved horn on their heads, and some other copra, or caloeaters, the male and female work side by side, digging under a suitable pile of manure a rather large gallery ending in a widening camera. Beetles drag it there a large number of manure and form it into a special “pie” of an elongated or spherical shape. In such a “pie,” specific processes of anaerobic fermentation occur, as a result of which future food for the larvae becomes more homogeneous and easily digestible.

And only when the “pie” is ready, the female begins to mold nutritious balls from it for future offspring. And then she continues to take care of the larvae - if the ball begins to crack and threatens to dry out, the female seals the cracks, if mold appears on it, she cleans it off. And this happens until the young beetles emerge from their cradles or until the mother dies. The latter happens more often - most scarabs reproduce once in a lifetime and do not live to see the offspring emerge from the pupae.

The parental care of Australian scarabs from the genus Cephalodesmius is also complex and surprising. Adult beetles appear on the surface at the end of summer and immediately dig feeding holes for themselves, into which they steal food supplies. In autumn, a meeting between a male and a female occurs. And although the breeding season is still far away, they no longer separate, but start a common burrow, where they store food for the winter. The time of reproduction comes in the spring. Now both parents are constantly scurrying back and forth, bringing a huge amount of a wide variety of food into the hole - unlike most scarabs, representatives of this genus feed mainly on plant material.

Among their reserves you can find rotten leaves, small flowers, small fruits, seeds, and animal droppings. As supplies accumulate, food acquisition becomes mainly the concern of the male, and the female begins to “process” the delivered provisions. She adds her own litter and the male's litter to the total mass and begins to form balls from all this, in which a specific fermentation process takes place. When the nutrient mass “ripens”, the female makes peculiar cups out of it, lays eggs in them and closes them with lids - so that the result is again balls.

From this time on, the female Cephalodesmis never leaves the nest - all her strength goes into caring for her future children. As soon as the larva hatches in the cradle and begins to feed on the contents of its ball, the mother’s worries increase. She adds new portions of food to the ball, which the male continues to supply her with.

While the larva is small, the mother adds only fermented mass to its ball, but then switches to food that is not fully “ripe” and even fresh, just brought by the male. At this time, the developing larva begins to make sounds in its ball that arise due to the friction of small tubercles on the inner surface of the last abdominal segment and special ridges on the head. The function of these sound signals is unknown, but scientists suggest that in this way the larva can communicate to the mother about its condition and need for food. Adult cephalodesmis do not make any sounds.

When the development of the larva is completed and it is ready to pupate, the mother plasters the surface of the ball with a special mixture of her droppings, the droppings of the male and the larvae (the latter is released from the ball through the walls). After the mixture dries, the ball becomes especially durable and strong. Having “sealed” one cradle, the female continues to care for the others, but by the time the young beetles are born, the parents have already died.

However, Australian dung beetles are striking not only because of their amazing family relationships. For example, in Australia there lives the only representative of the subfamily that is unable to fly. This beetle was discovered completely by accident, and not in nature, but in museum collections. In 1972, Australian researcher Eric Matthews, working at the Paris Museum, noticed an unusual specimen labeled “Queensland, from the collection of Henry Bates.”

How did the Australian beetle get to one of the greatest naturalists of the last century, who worked mainly in the Amazon and had never been to Australia? It turned out that Bates bought this specimen from the collector Francis Du Boulay, who actually visited Queensland, in an area located about 150 km from the place where the wingless beetles are now discovered.

Their winglessness was also discovered by accident - when an incomprehensible specimen from an old collection was softened and the convex elytra of the beetle were lifted. More precisely, it has wings, but they are small, unable to ensure the flight of a heavy insect.

The newly discovered beetle received the Latin name Onthophagus apterus, which reflected its “winglessness.” However, the specimen from the Bates collection continued to be the only one known to scientists.

Living beetles were found only 24 years later - in 1996, when several insects of this species fell into entomological traps set by scientists in western Queensland. It turned out that wingless dung beetles live in small mountains, in the resting places of wallabies, and feed on the droppings of these marsupials. Later, another colony was discovered in another area, also in wallaby resting areas.

This commitment of beetles to one place, abundant with food for many centuries, may, according to scientists, explain their inability to fly. However, this is only an assumption - after all, in this case, the population of dung beetles turns out to be very vulnerable. As soon as changes occur in the landscape, the wallabies will change their resting place - and then the beetles will disappear...

It is interesting that although about 400 species of dung beetles are found in Australia, they are all quite specialized and adapted to the peculiar conditions of the “fifth continent”. And when, following the European settlers, herds of sheep and cows appeared here, it turned out that there was no one to process their droppings! In the 60s century, the problem assumed alarming proportions - huge areas were covered with drying and dried manure.

As a result, it was necessary to bring and acclimatize African dung beetles here, which adapted to cope well with the rich “harvest” left by herds of ungulates. After numerous experiments, representatives of the species Onthophagus gazella were appointed to the position of “vacuum cleaners”, which, by the way, were already used in this position in Texas and California. These beetles are very hardworking and calm towards each other - from 10 to 50 pairs can simultaneously “work” on one cake of manure without entering into conflicts.

This species is probably the most productive among dung beetles. The larva in the ball develops within 2.5 weeks, and the pupa – 2 weeks. Puberty occurs in beetles within 4–5 days after leaving the nesting hole. Each female makes from 10 to 12 balls and lays an egg there, and the male helps her create food reserves for future children...

The dung beetles include three subfamilies of beetles of the lamellar beetles family (Scarabaeidae)1; aphodia (Afodiinae, about 2500 species); true dung beetles, or geotrupes, (Geotrupinae, about 900 species), and scarabs (Scarabaeinae, about 4500 species).

Ecologically, all three subfamilies are very similar - their representatives process the organic matter of the droppings and transfer it to the soil, where further decomposition is carried out by various microorganisms.

Dung beetles, and scarabs in particular, - excellent flyers. They usually get to a food source by air, and their well-developed sense of smell tells them where to fly.

Although scarabs, as already mentioned, do not like dryness and therefore usually avoid deserts, among them there are a number of species that have nevertheless adapted to live in regions with arid climates. To survive, they developed peculiar forms of behavior. For example, in the dry steppes and deserts of Turkmenistan, the very large (up to 5 cm) dung beetle tmol (Synapsis tmolus) and the smaller (up to 3 cm) Spanish copra (Copris hispanus) retain food moisture by first quickly burying their food right in place, and then transferring it to deeper burrows in which the air remains moist.

The Australian beetle Coproecus hemiphaericus buries dry excrement very deep, about aquifers, and there they become damp and soften to the desired condition. Many species of scarabs found in deserts North America and in mountain deserts, they often do not leave rodent burrows at all, where there is food and a favorable microclimate for them.

But some Australian dung beetles, which feed on marsupial droppings, act differently. There is not much moisture in the excrement of desert mammals, and when they fall on dry soil, they instantly turn into hard pebbles. In order to prevent the food from drying out, the beetles grab the fur near the animal’s anus with their tenacious paws and thus travel, waiting for the desired prey. They then jump off and quickly drag their trophy underground.

Particularly interesting is the fact that in nature, the scarab is an African sewage plant. Herds of elephants living on the plains of Africa, eating 250 kg of food a day, return most of it back to the earth in the form of large dung heaps. Perhaps Africa would have been mired in a huge layer of manure if it had not been saved every day by thousands of scarab beetles living there. They contribute to the disposal of manure.

In the ideas of the ancient Egyptians, the scarab beetle, rolling a dung ball along the ground with its hind legs, was the personification of the supernatural viviparous forces of nature. The Egyptians believed that the persistent and purposeful beetle arises on its own and is therefore similar to deities, such as the ancient solar god Khepri and other gods, the creators of man, the world and the Universe, who arose on their own. The Egyptians considered the ball created from dung to be a symbol eternal life, since he was like the sun, and the hard-working beetle allegedly repeated the heavenly path of the sun on earth and at the same time he, like the sun, emitted light and heat. It is no coincidence that the god Khepri was often depicted with the head of a scarab beetle.

In Egyptian it was called khepru, which meant “to live, to exist,” in Greek it was called scarab, which simply meant beetle. According to legend, the god Osiris reigned over Egypt, he taught people agriculture, gardening and winemaking, but was killed by his brother, the god Set, who was jealous of his wealth and power. He chopped the dead man's body into pieces. According to some sources, into 13 parts, according to others - into 42 and transported them to the provinces of Egypt, and threw the head into the Nile. The head sailed to Abydos, a town located on the western bank of the river, where the head was buried. Since then, Abydos has become the burial place of the first Egyptian rulers. The scarab that appeared from the head of Osiris announced that Osiris had risen from the dead, moved to the heavenly world, and a new stage of his existence had begun.

Having endowed the scarab with all conceivable divine powers and virtues, the Egyptians gradually turned it into the most secret and desired talisman, which should accompany a person during life and go with him to the kingdom of the dead, where he would not part with him. In the kingdom of the dead, the scarab already personified the power of a never-dying heart, which helped a person get rid of the shortcomings he had during life and be reborn again. With the help of the scarab talisman, a person became able to overcome all obstacles encountered on his way, he was renewed and could return to the world of the living, then the person died again and was resurrected renewed, and so on endlessly. Therefore, the figurine of a scarab from precious stones They put it inside the mummy in place of the removed heart.

The scarab and the legend of its divine origin were so popular in Ancient Egypt that images of the dung beetle were found on the walls of many dwellings, were present in all funeral complexes, and monuments were created to it. Carvers made his figurines from precious stones, decorated them with gold patterns, and thus sacred talismans and amulets appeared.

Sometimes you can see a scarab with its wings spread. Such beetles meant that they had completed their mission on earth and were ready to go to heaven, to the sources that gave birth to them. There are also stone figurines of scarabs holding a ball in their paws - a symbol of the fiery sun. A beetle with a ball in its paws means the birth of a new life, which promises to give impetus to human renewal.

Thus, an inconspicuous insect, the scarab beetle, in Ancient Egypt gradually acquired the features of a god who accompanied a person during life and after death, becoming an eternal symbol of the soul living outside of time and space.

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 night look life, when intense flight towards light sources begins. Beetles, flocking to piles of dung, make balls of different sizes from it, sometimes significantly larger than 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 soften them, and sometimes they overwinter in them.

In Egyptian mythology

Gallery

Egyptian amulet

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• (article by Elena Sikirich) - about the ancient Egyptian symbol

Excerpt characterizing the Sacred Scarab

Nothing happened in Pierre's soul now similar to that, what happened in her 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 came to Pierre. He didn't make any plans either. 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.