Scarab species. Scarab - a sacred symbol with a thousand-year history

The African continent is rich animal world, a special place in it is occupied by animals that are still considered sacred. The scarab beetle has a special honor among the Egyptians and other peoples of Africa, in some villages it is still worshiped, like thousands of years ago.

Photo and description of the scarab beetle

It is difficult to find an adult who has not heard about scarabs; for most, he is associated with Egypt, the pyramids, pharaohs. But you can meet him on other continents of the globe. Knowing what a famous insect looks like will make it easier to identify it.

A photo of a scarab beetle will tell a lot about the insect, characteristic features appearances are:

• Black color throughout the body, adults have a brilliant sheen. It is extremely rare to find a representative with a metallic gray color. The green scarab beetle is fictional, this color is not characteristic of the insect.
• The shape of the body is oval-elongated, with a durable chitinous coating.
• The head is small relative to the body, it has a clypeus with teeth to facilitate the extraction of food.

On a note!

Distinctive features of the male and female are the red fringe on the back pair of legs, nature has endowed the strong half with such decoration. unites this species insect vegetation on the abdomen and legs. Long hairs are considered their calling card as well as the four prongs on the front pair of legs, which are used for digging and shaping food into balls for easier transport.

Individual sizes may vary. The beetle in Egypt reaches 41 mm in length. There are also smaller individuals - only 9.5 mm in more northern regions.

Where does it live

Most of us are sure that the insect's habitat is quite limited. But this opinion is erroneous, a representative of insects rolling balls of manure is found not only in Africa. The peddler beetle, or beetle beetle, is distributed north of the Himalayas in Europe and Asia. In the Eastern Hemisphere, he failed to take root only in Australia. The Western Hemisphere did not become his home at all.

Due to the large accumulation of manure, insects are periodically imported to other continents, they cope with the problem that has arisen, but they fail to take root either in Australia or on the American continent.

What does it eat

The Egyptians believed that there are scarabs that eat people, they crawl under the skin through the ears, nose and eat a person from the inside.

Interesting!

Science has proven that the carnivorous species of beetles does not exist, the studied species are absolutely safe for humans and animals.

Their food consists of manure, which is why they deserved universal love in ancient times. able to process within a short time a large number of manure left by pets. Scarabs can also be considered orderlies in wild nature. It would take four thousand scarabs just an hour to clear a medium pile of dung.

In the middle lane, beetles begin their active life as soon as the air warms up. They are engaged in cleansing only during the day until mid-summer, and then they switch to night image life. For a normal existence for 10-14 days, the scarab needs one ball of manure, five times the size of the insect itself. The beetle rolls it into a previously dug hole near its dwelling and digs it in. This is how a young beetle works, in more adulthood male and female prepare for future use more manure. It is with the help of this type of waste that the continuation of the genus in these insects is possible.

In order to prepare food for itself, the scarab rolls a ball of dung, it does it quite funny:

• the basis is most often a small piece of round feces;
• with the edge of the head, the insect, as it were, cuts off small pieces of manure;
• presses the torn piece into the ball with the front and hind legs;
• the middle pair of legs firmly holds the lump, not letting go until the formation process is completed.

The beetle rolls the finished ball into a safe shelter in a shaded place. On the way, he is very careful, because smaller beetles in larger numbers can take prey without problems. Yes, and relatives of the same physique do not disdain ready-made food.

Interesting!

Manure helps not only to live scarabs, the appearance of offspring also depends on it. The female and the male stock up on a sufficient amount of manure, lay it out in burrows, and then the female lays eggs in specially fashioned capsules. Until the state of the chrysalis, they feed on the manure that their parents have in store for them.

Correct name

In Europe, the scarab beetle has many interpretations of the name, the dung beetle is called differently. The most common is the beetle beetle, but this is a wrong spelling. All explanatory dictionaries they say that it is correct to write and pronounce the scarab.

The inhabitants of the middle zone in the tales call the insect a flock, which is also incorrect.

Information about the insect

Fame brought to the beetle Egyptian pyramids, where a large number of his images were found in the form of drawings on the walls and papyrus.

The ancient Egyptians revered the beetle as a god, it was often depicted with a human body and the head of an insect, there are images of a beetle in a circle. Because of the plate with teeth on the head, the scarab was considered a deity close to the sun, they called him Kheper.

Until a certain time, it was believed that insects are cannibals. It was they who frightened archaeologists and grave destroyers, arguing that the Egyptian scarab beetle under the skin would quickly deal with a person as soon as he was in the burial of the pharaoh or took some thing from the grave.

Interesting!

In the tombs of the pharaohs of Egypt, scarabs were indeed found, according to legend, they were placed in the grave to protect the rulers in the other world from negativity.

Nowadays, faith in the magical power of the scarab has not disappeared; you can often find such an image as a talisman for many influential people. At one time it was fashionable and prestigious to wear a tie pin with a scarab, and the inlay was carried out precious stones Green colour. Accessories and Jewelry are also made with such symbols, which should bring health and longevity to the owner.

The scarab beetle is quite common around the globe. You should not be afraid of him, he is not at all dangerous for people, the ancient Egyptians came to such a conclusion. It was not for nothing that he was revered as a deity, putting him on a par with the gods Ra, Osiris, Thoth and Horus. Rather, on the contrary, if this insect did not help in removing manure from forests and fields, then Earth I would have been tied up in this waste a long time ago.

Scarab beetles belong to the subfamily of dung beetles, which are part of the lamellar suborder of the polyphagous beetle suborder of the Coleoptera order, or simply beetles. Since time immemorial, many scarab beetles inhabited the banks of the Nile, where they brought great benefits to society, being a kind of orderlies. The ancient Egyptians endowed 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, who were often identified by them 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 a creature with a human body and a beetle's head, just as Anubis was depicted as a man with a jackal's head, Thoth with an ibis head and Horus with a falcon's head. The scarab god Kheper was also often identified by the ancient Egyptians with the sun god Ra. But I do not want to detain your attention too long on ancient Egyptian mythology - it is enough for us to know that the scarab, according to the Egyptians, had a number of supernatural properties. The ancient Egyptians could not fail to notice the benefits that scarab beetles brought, destroying rotting food, cleansing the earth of everything old, dying, and thereby giving rise to 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. During excavations, tombs rarely come across in which there would be no 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 was even honored to be buried in the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs, if, of course, this can be called luck =) In other words, if it was ranked among the sacred insects, seeing it as a symbol of the movement of the sun, then it should not pose a danger to you. on the neck covering the solar plexus, wooden - love, real African passions, a scarab with outstretched wings - power and wealth, wear on index finger if a beetle on the handle of a cane - a person acquires great spiritual abilities, something like a priest or magician, but it takes a lot of time, although it's worth it, jade is for the weak, so if it was thrown to you in my opinion it's not so bad, clean it and wear like 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.. .

The Egyptian scarab beetle is often found in feature films about the tombs of the pharaohs. As a rule, these insects do not cause positive emotions, and sometimes even inspire fear, as in the movie "The Mummy", where the beetles brought death to those who dared to disturb the peace of the tomb.

Can an amulet in the form of a sacred insect be useful and what is the meaning of the scarab beetle symbol from the time of Ancient Egypt, let's try to figure it out.

Ancient Egyptian mythology contains many interesting legends about the image of the scarab beetle, here are some of them:

1. The ancient Egyptians associated the image of the scarab beetle with the movement of the sun across the sky. Most likely, this is due to his way of rolling a ball of dung - in many images that have survived to this day, sacred scarab similarly rolled the Sun across the sky. Also, the people believed that all animals originated from the sacred waters of the Nile River, while the scarab beetle came out of the golden sandy deserts. Therefore, the insect was compared with the god of sunrise Khepri. Since then, the first amulets began to appear, depicting Khepri with the head of a scarab beetle. They were made of stones, and then covered with green or gold paint.
2. The most common myth about Egyptian scarabs is that they are the guardians of souls after death until the dead are transported to the realm of the dead. Therefore, in the ancient tombs there are a lot of figurines and images of the scarab - the Egyptians called on them to protect the dead.

The Egyptians inserted a scarab figurine into the body of the deceased. Even in those ancient times, people understood that a person's life depends on the heart. Therefore, when preparing the body for burial, the heart was removed, and a figurine of the guardian of the soul was placed instead - it was believed that without it a person would not be resurrected in the afterlife.

The people of ancient Egypt sincerely believed–beyond death, life is no worse. Therefore, the beetle was a talisman for them, helping to move towards a new, better life.

Since the time of ancient Egypt, many have been found various items, not entirely clear in meaning to modern science. One of the groups of these treasures is mysterious and talismans. Among them, in addition to the well-known and, quite often there are objects with the image of the guardian beetle of the soul:

• pendants;
• seals;
• brooches;
• pendants;
• figurines;
• statues;
• drawings on frescoes and edged weapons;
• images of people with a scarab pattern on their skin.

The scarab beetle can often be found in ancient Egyptian frescoes.

In our age, you can find a variety of interior items with a sacred insect applied to them. Most often these are paintings, watches, small figurines, caskets and dishes. Scarab-shaped pendants and brooches are also common. Occasionally you can see a watch decorated with his image, or a keychain in the form of a soul keeper.

The meaning of the amulet beetle scarab

To this day, the scarab beetle is used as an amulet that protects the human soul from grief, problems, helping to overcome difficulties on the way to life's goal. Only one who knows the true meaning of this Egyptian symbol and believes in the power of solar energy can use the amulet.

As in ancient times, today the image of an insect is applied to jewelry and household items, small figures in the form of a beetle are made. As a rule, stones of various colors are inserted into jewelry. Since the beetle symbolizes the path from the past to a better future, it is recommended to purchase items with turquoise. This shade is considered the color of rebirth and transition from past life into a new one.

In Luxor there is a statue of a scarab beetle, very popular among tourists.

Many psychics and magicians, believing in the power of the sacred Egyptian insect, put its image on their ritual objects. Amulet with a scarab beetle today is often found in the form of a pendant or ring.

People who understand the meaning of a scarab tattoo sometimes use its image, combining it with ancient hieroglyphs. By the way, in men, a tattoo in the form of an Egyptian beetle takes on the meaning of wisdom and the victory of light over darkness. For women, the sign helps to preserve beauty, youth and women's health.

When to get a talisman

The talisman, depending on the application, acts differently on its owner. Experts identify several areas of influence:

1. In the absence of family happiness, problems in communicating with children or with a loved one, it is necessary to place an item of interior decor in the form of an Egyptian beetle approximately in the center of your home - the amulet will reflect the evil energy of strangers and strengthen love feelings.
2. If there are problems at work (with colleagues or career development) - a small figurine or wall decoration in the office will help reflect negative energy, bring good luck and give a sense of self-confidence.
3. Jewelry will only help its owner, his relatives will not be influenced. This version of the amulet is relevant for health problems or the presence of ill-wishers in the immediate environment. The symbol will attract solar energy to heal its owner and protect from enemies.
4. It will also be useful for people in the military, security and rescue professions to wear a beetle as a warrior's amulet. A sacred insect will repel a threat to life and health.
5. Such a talisman will help students to attract good luck in their studies and strengthen the desire for knowledge.

The talisman Scarab beetle has many meanings, and it can act in different ways.

After acquiring a personal talisman, it is recommended to use it so that outsiders do not see the amulet - for example, hide the pendant behind the collar of clothes. If you tell about its existence and show strangers, the magical power directed at the wearer can change direction, and achieved result will be lost.

As soon as you have the amulet, activate it: press it to your chest with both hands and mentally ask the scarab beetle for help. The amulet, providing strong protection, accumulates in itself all the negativity that comes from the outside. Therefore, periodically, about once a week, it needs to be cleaned: hold it for several minutes under running water to get rid of negative energy and after put under the bright Sun rays for a few hours to accumulate positive force. It is desirable that no one was at home at the time of purification and recharging of the amulet.

Which amulet to choose

Experts in mythology and esotericism say that no amulet can be acquired just like that. In order for the amulet to really work, it must be individually selected. To do this, they recommend relying on some rules:

1. The amulet protects the place in which it is constantly located. If jewelry is purchased, it will protect the person personally, his health and energy background. It can be a pendant, pendant or necklace. It should be hung close to the heart. men better fit beetle ring.
2. Before acquiring, you need to decide which life sphere most of all requires the help of a sacred insect.
3. When purchasing a talisman, initially think about the purpose of its acquisition. Thus, he will immediately begin to tune in to the required energy wave.
4. There should not be any inscriptions on the amulet - they make its strength weaker. Moreover, sometimes the words are written in an unfamiliar language. The acquisition of an amulet, for example, with the inscription “to attract money”, when it is actually necessary “for health”, distorts its effect.

IN Orthodox Christianity there is a ban on wearing any talismans at the same time as an amulet or a cross. Therefore, believers in Christ are not recommended to turn to the symbols of another religion for help and protection.

Talisman as a gift

The sacred scarab is well suited for the role of a gift to relatives and friends. Most often, figurines or paintings depicting a beetle are chosen. Female relatives can choose jewelry, and male relatives can choose a ring with a carved scarab. When choosing a gift, mentally you need to be tuned only to the good. When presenting a present, you need to tell the new owner about the meaning of this sign and the rules for its use.

A talisman obtained in this way can serve no worse than one acquired independently. Of course, in this case, the donor must choose the amulet, knowing in advance by whom and for what it will be used.

It is impossible to accept a gift in the form of an Egyptian talisman from strangers or unfamiliar people - it is not known with what thoughts a person gives it.

On the plains African continent, where many herbivores live, among which there are many large mammals, there is always food for bugs. 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. It can be said that Africa (and other places on our planet) has not yet become bogged down in a huge layer of manure only thanks to a huge number of dung beetles, among which the sacred Egyptian scarab beetle occupies a special place.

The scarab beetle belongs to the class of insects, a detachment of beetles of the lamellar family, one of the signs of which is special form the structure of the antennae, which is characterized by a lamellar 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, savannahs. Most are found only in tropical Africa: in the Palearctic (a region that covers Europe, Asia north of the Himalayas, as well as North Africa to the southern border of the Sahara) there are about twenty species, while in the Western Hemisphere and Australia they are completely absent.

Description

The length of scarab beetles ranges from 9.5 to 41 mm. Most of them are black, a silver-metallic insect is very rare. As it matures, the beetle acquires a brilliant sheen. Males can be distinguished from females by their hind legs. inside covered with reddish-golden fringe.

The shape of the body of scarabs is wide, oval, large, slightly convex, covered with an exoskeleton (a strong chitinous cover that acts as an external skeleton). The head of the beetle is transverse in shape, has a clypeus with six teeth.

The pronotum of the insect is simple, strongly transverse, of a granular structure, finely serrated at the base and laterally. Elytra with six grooves, twice as long as pronotum, base without border, granular structure characteristic. At the base, the posterior abdomen has a border.

On the abdomen and legs (he has three pairs of legs in total) there are long dark hairs. The forelegs are digging, have four outer teeth, the part at the base on the outer side is finely serrated. The middle and hind tibiae are thin, long, slightly curved, while the tarsi are compacted closer to the body.

Way of life and nutrition

In mid-latitudes, the scarab beetle appears in mid-spring and, as long as it is cold at night, is active during the day. In summer, when it is much warmer at night, it switches to a nocturnal lifestyle. The sandy soil orderly (one might even say, a kind of waste disposal specialist) the insect was not called in vain: almost his 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 completely pull it away in an hour (if they hesitate, the manure will dry out and the ball will not work).

They do it pretty interesting way: using the teeth on the head, and the front paws instead of a shovel and a cutter. Balls are made from manure, the dimensions of which often exceed the utilizer 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 that, having settled on top, the beetle begins to turn in different directions, separating the dung particles surrounding it with the edge of the head, while the front paws pick them up, bring them to the ball and press into it, then from below, then from above, then from the sides, until it gets the right size.

The formed ball in search of a shaded corner of the earth, the insect is able to roll several tens of meters, and the farther it moves away from the heap, the faster the prey rolls. If the beetle is distracted for some reason, the ball made by it is quite capable of being taken away and appropriated by relatives, therefore fierce battles often arise for the right to possess ready-made prey. Smaller species of dung beetles can settle in the balls during this time, and if there are too many of them, the ball will be useless for the owner.

Having found a suitable place, the beetle, having made a hole, rolls it down, digs it in, settles next to it, and until it eats (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 own food. But, pretty soon (they live around three months) a beetle of the opposite sex is connected to it, as a result of which a pair is formed: insects begin to work together and prepare food not so much for themselves as for their offspring.

To do this, they dig minks, the depth of which is from 10 to 30 cm (they create as many nests as the female is about to lay eggs). Upon completion of work, the male leaves the mink, and the female begins to sculpt oval-shaped dung figures (ovoids). In the narrower part, she makes a recess in which she places an oval-shaped egg (10 x 5 mm), after which the entrance to the mink is filled up.

The egg stage of the utilizing beetle lasts from 5 to 12 days, after which it turns into a larva, which constantly feeds on food prepared by its 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 that emerged from pupae do not leave their nests for some time, and if the species lives in temperate latitudes, they stay there until spring.

Relationships with people

How useful these insects were, they understood back in ancient Egypt, when they saw that black beetles destroy manure and rotten products, clearing the earth of decay products (important work 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 god of the Sun 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 of the sun's rays. Not surprisingly, the golden scarab was often found in ancient Egyptian temples.

In addition to the fact that he was considered an animal of the main deity, there was also a cult of the scarab god Kheper in Ancient Egypt, who was the god of health and longevity. Therefore, stone and metal figurines of Kheper, as well as many medallions depicting a golden scarab, were found in many tombs.

These beetles are successfully used even now. 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 insects did not take root here, they completed their task.

The scarab beetle is one of ancient talismans which is very popular today. This is not surprising, since it has magical properties. In ancient Egypt, the scarab was revered, and it was considered sacred symbol that the people worshipped. It was called the sacred scarab. Images of this symbol were found on frescoes, statues and papyri. Hence, it was very popular with the people of that time.

Today, the scarab beetle has not lost its relevance. With the establishment of tourist ties with Egypt, people began to bring talismans of the scarab beetle to Europe as souvenirs. However, not everyone has an idea of ​​the significance of this amulet. In this article, we will talk about the history of its occurrence and find out what this Egyptian talisman means and how to wear it correctly.

In reality, the scarab beetle is an insect that uses livestock droppings for food. Therefore, it is called the dung beetle. He rolls balls out of it, and this action takes most his time. It would seem that watching him is not a pleasant occupation.