38 INSECT LIFE n 



Moreover, we have further proof in another reason. 

 Were the absence of fore-claws accidental, and the 

 consequence of rough labour, there are other insects, 

 especially among the scavenger beetles, which under- 

 take excavations yet more difficult than those of 

 the Scarabaeus, and which ought therefore to be 

 still more liable to lose their front claws, as these 

 are useless and in the way when the foot has 

 to serve as a strong tool for excavation. For 

 instance, the Geotrupes, who deserve their name of 

 Earth-piecer so well, make hollows in the hard and 

 beaten soil of paths among pebbles cemented by 

 clay — vertical pits so deep that to reach the lowest 

 cell one has to use powerful digging tools, and even 

 then one does not always succeed. Now these 

 miners par excellence, who easily open long galleries 

 in surroundings whose surface the Scarabaeus sacer 

 could hardly disturb, have their front tarsi intact, 

 as if to perforate tufa were a work calling for 

 delicacy rather than strength. Everything then 

 points to the belief that, if observed in its natal cell, 

 the baby Scarabaeus would be found mutilated like 

 the veteran who has travelled the world and grown 

 worn with labour. 



On this absence of fingers might be based an 

 argument in favour of the theories now in fashion — 

 the struggle for life and the evolution of the species. 

 One might say that the Scarabaeus had originally 

 tarsi on all its feet in conformity with the general 

 laws of insect organisation. One way or another, 

 some have lost these embarrassing appendages on 

 their forefeet, they being hurtful rather than useful. 

 Finding themselves the better for this mutilation, 



