I'd like to see a picture of the kind of bug that Gregor Samsa turned into.

Gregor's carapace and legs are described at the beginning of the
story, and his mouth (sort of) a little later.  Toward the end, a
cleaning woman addresses him as "old dung-beetle."  In the original
German, the word is "Mistkäfer," which, says my Cassell's, is indeed
dung-beetle; but we have no reason to think that the cleaning woman
was an entomologist or even necessarily a close observer.

So, first, what kind of bug is being described at the beginning of the
story?  Is it a dung-beetle (scarab)?--that is, is the description
consistent with that of a dung-beetle?

Second, let's have a picture of a dung-beetle such as Franz Kafka
might have been describing, if any is local to his region, as opposed
to, say, Egypt or North Carolina.

Thank you,
Archae0pteryx

Not quite the kind of picture you are asking for, but a drawing on the
"first page of Nabokov's teaching copy of  The Metamorphosis"
http://www.kafka-franz.com/images/nbmtmphs3w-w.jpg

By the way - "when Kafka learned that Starke was to-do an
illustration, he wrote: 'The insect itself must not be illustrated by
a drawing. It cannot be shown at all, not even from a distance'":
http://www.kafka-franz.com/

Thank you, fp, for your good and useful comments.  Both of them add
insight even if they weren't what I asked for.  Perhaps I should look
no further.

What was in my mind was, first, was a dung-beetle (scarab) really
intended?--that is, do the descriptive details offered at the
beginning of the story fit the physical characteristics of a
dung-beetle, or were the words of the cleaning woman meant to be taken
loosely?

And second, if it was a dung-beetle, is there any association with the
scarab of Egypt and its sun-and-rebirth symbolism?  If so, that might
add an interesting dimension to a reading of the story.  Approaching
the second question would have taken a lot more trouble, and
researching Kafka's possible exposure to Egyptology would be pointless
if the bug he described wasn't really a scarab.

Archae0pteryx

Thank you, Archae0pteryx.

Some more pictures, not answering your question but on the website of
the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St.
Petersburg
http://www.zin.ru/index_e.htm

Beetles (Coleoptera) and Coleopterists
http://www.zin.ru/Animalia/Coleoptera/eng/index.htm

Currently several pages of the English version are still empty as only
"77% of pages have been filled":
http://www.zin.ru/Animalia/Coleoptera/eng/authors.htm

So these are the titles of the pages in English. Please click on the
Russian flag if the pages are empty.

Beetles in art
http://www.zin.ru/Animalia/Coleoptera/eng/world21.htm

Drawing by Ivan Zemtsov to short story by F.Kafka "Metamorphosis"
http://www.zin.ru/Animalia/Coleoptera/eng/zemtsov.htm

Beetles in prose
http://www.zin.ru/Animalia/Coleoptera/eng/world22.htm

Franz Kafka - "Metamorphosis"
http://www.zin.ru/Animalia/Coleoptera/eng/kafkverw.htm

Vladimir Nabokov "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka
http://www.zin.ru/Animalia/Coleoptera/eng/nabokafk.htm

Entomological trip of Vladimir Nabokov (photo by Horst Tappe)
http://www.zin.ru/Animalia/Coleoptera/eng/nabokent.htm

Drawings by Vladimir Nabokov to essay on "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka
http://www.zin.ru/Animalia/Coleoptera/eng/nabokris.htm

Beetles on the Bookcovers (Kafka book on the left)
http://www.zin.ru/Animalia/Coleoptera/eng/kristall.htm



Lecture on "The Metamorphosis" by Vladimir Nabokov
http://www.kafka.org/index.php?id=191,209,0,0,1,0

Another drawing by Nabokov
http://www.fathom.com/course/10701032/session3.html

Thanks for the additional help, fb.  I have now seen Nabokov's
assertion that it was not a dung-beetle.  I would take Nabokov's word
for most anything involving bugs, as well as for a good reading of a
piece of 20th-century European literature.  His lecture was
fascinating.  So--I am not going to pursue this line of inquiry any
further.  Again, thanks.

Archae0pteryx