The Sacred Beetle in Captivity 



African species, S, cicatricosus, picked up 

 near Constantine. Well, in all four species, 

 the absence of tarsi on the front legs has 

 been an invariable fact, with not a single 

 exception, at any rate within the range of 

 my observations. The Scarab therefore is 

 maimed from the start; and it is a natural 

 peculiarity in his case, not an accident. 



Besides, there is another argument in 

 support of this statement. If the lack of 

 fore-fingers were an accidental mutilation, 

 due to violent exertion, there are other in- 

 sects. Dung-beetles too, who habitually 

 undertake works of excavation even more 

 arduous than the Scarab's and who ought 

 therefore, a fortiori, to be deprived of their 

 front tarsi, since these are useless and even 

 irksome when the leg has to serve as a 

 powerful digging-implement. The Geo- 

 trupes, for instance, who so well deserve 

 their name, meaning Earth-piercers, sink 

 wells in the hard soil of the roads, among 

 stones cemented with clay: perpendicular 

 wells so deep that, to inspect the cell at the 

 bottom of them, we have to make use of a 

 stout spade ; and even then we do not always 

 succeed. Now these unrivalled miners, who 

 easily open up long tunnels in a substance 

 whose surface the Sacred Beetle would 

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