the basketful in the Dschang region of the Cameroons (Lisle 1945). Ghesquie `re ´ (1947) observed that Platygenia sp. (Cetoniinae) were sold living or fried in oil in almost all the native markets of tropical Africa, and that the larva of A. centaurus were also consumed. The larvae and occasionally the adults of Oryctes boas (Fabr.), O. owariensis (Palisot de Beauvois), and O. monoceras (Olivier) (Dynastinae) are eaten in South Africa (Bodenheimer 1951). The larvae of some species of Goliathus (Cetoniinae) are considered a delicacy in the Congo (Bequaert 1921). The Bedouin of Egypt roast and eat with salt the adults of Scarabaeus sacer L. (Scarabaeinae) (Bristowe 1932), while Hope (1842) and Bodenheimer (1951) both reported that some women in North Africa eat adult dung beetles (Scarabaeus sp.) with the idea of achieving the proper degree of plumpness (a trait of attractiveness in the region). Reitter (1961) observed that the bushmen and Hottentots of southern Africa eat rhinoceros beetles (probably Oryctes sp., possibly Augosoma centaurus) in order to acquire the ‘‘special powers’’ they associate with these large (ca. 40– 65 mm) beetles. This is known as imitative magic, and these rituals were reviewed by Cherry (2005). Klausnitzer (1981), expanding on the theme of magical properties derived from beetles, reported that conspicuously horned, tropical rhinoceros beetles served as aphrodisiacs. Belief in the efficacy of such a potion was encouraged by the increased development of body size and especially horns in these scarabs. Many prescriptions apparently recommended that the horns alone should be taken in water, and such aphrodisiac preparations continue to be used today. Europe The ancient Greeks and Romans adopted, to varying degrees, the Egyptian sacred scarab. This took the form of employing the scarab primarily as a good luck charm without incorporating the Egyptian components of ‘‘life after death’’ messages to the ‘‘keeper of the balance’’ during judgment in the netherworld, or sun god symbolism. Two scarabs, apparently from northern Syria, were recently found on a Bronze Age shipwreck discovered at Uluburun in southern Turkey (Pulak and Bass 2002). A unique gold scarab naming Nefertiti was found in the wreck. Nefertiti was the wife of the heretic 18th Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (1352–1336 B.C.), the promoter of monotheism in Egypt. The trading vessel sank approximately 1,300 B.C. and was probably of the Canaanite culture (Bower 1984, 1989). Elsewhere, on the island of Crete, hand- sized representations of rhinoceros beetles (probably Oryctes sp.) have been excavated from a Minoan shrine dating from about 1,600 B.C. (Klausnitzer 1981). The Romans especially had great faith in the scarab’s protective powers, particularly in battle, and many artificial scarabs have been found in Roman r Figs. 1–4. (1): Rectangular pendant with blue scarab between two green, sacred baboons. Pendant made from gold, lapis-lazuli, turquoise, and carnelian. Photo courtesy of Egyptian Museum, Cairo. (2): Scarab armband in the Egyptian Museum (Cairo) made of gold, lapis-lazuli, quartz, and carnelian. Photo by Margarete Busing, Ausstellung Tutanchamun. (3): Commemorative heart scarab highlighting a hunt of king Amenhophis III, New Empire, 1,580-00 B.C. Photo by author. (4): Giant granite scarab at the Temple of Amun at Karnak, Egypt. Photo by C. Messenger. COLEOPTERISTS SOCIETY MONOGRAPH NUMBER 5, 2006 89