I THE SACRED BEETLE 3 



ground of impurities. It is impossible to admire 

 sufficiently the variety of tools with which they are 

 furnished, both to stir the dung with, to divide and 

 shape it, and to hollow the deep retreats into which 

 they shut themselves with their booty. These tools 

 form a kind of technological museum, where there 

 is a specimen of every kind of digging instrument. 

 Some might be copied from those devised by human 

 industry, others are of an original type, and 

 might serve as models for new tools for man. 

 Copris hispanica wears a strong horn on its head, 

 forked and bent back, like the long spike of a pick- 

 axe. To a similar horn C. lunaris adds two strong 

 points, shaped liked a ploughshare, projecting 

 from the thorax, and between them a sharp-edged 

 protuberance, serving as a wide rake. Bubas 

 bubalus and B. bison, both exclusively Mediterranean 

 species, have foreheads armed with two stout, 

 diverging horns, between which projects a hori- 

 zontal share from the corslet. Geotrupes typhaeus 

 carries three points on the front of its thorax, 

 parallel and standing straight out, the middle one 

 shorter than the others. Onthophagus taurus owns 

 as implements two long curving appendages 

 like the horns of a bull, while the furcate Ontho- 

 phagus has a two -pronged fork on its flat head. 

 Even those least well off have on one part or other 

 hard tubercules — tools blunt indeed, but which the 

 patient insect knows very well how to utilise. All 

 are furnished with a shovel, i.e. a large, flat, sharp- 

 edged head ; all use a rake — in other words, they 

 collect materials with their toothed front legs. 



As compensation for their unpleasant work, 



