THE SACRED BEETLE 49 



has come at last, late, it is true, but certain and in- 

 disputable. 



By a very strange exception, the full-grown Sacred 

 Beetle and his congeners are without front tarsi ; they 

 lack on their fore-legs that five-jointed finger which is 

 the rule among the highest division of Coleoptera, the 

 Pentamera. The other limbs, on the contrary, follow 

 the common law and possess a very well-shaped tarsus. 

 Is the formation of the toothed armlets origmal or 

 accidental ? 



At first sight, an accident seems probable enough. 

 The Scarab is a strenuous mmer and a great pedestrian. 

 Always in contact with the rough soil, whether in walking 

 or digging ; used, moreover, for constant leverage when 

 the insect is rolling its ball backwards, the fore-legs are 

 much more exposed than the others to the danger of 

 spraining and twisting their delicate finger, of putting 

 it out of joint, of losing it entirely, from the very first 

 moment when the work begins. 



Lest this explanation should appeal to any of my 

 readers, I will hasten to undeceive them. The absence 

 of the front fingers is not the result of an accident. The 

 proof of what I say lies here, under my eyes, without 

 the possibility of a rejoinder. I examine the nymph's 

 legs with the magnifying-glass : those m front have not 

 the least vestige of a tarsus ; the toothed limb ends 

 bluntly, without a trace of a terminal appendage. In 

 the others, on the contrary, the tarsus is as distinct as 

 possible, notwithstanding the shapeless, gnarled condition 

 due to the swaddling-bands and the humours of the 

 chrysalis state. It suggests a finger swollen with chil- 

 blains. 



If the evidence of the nymph were not sufficient, there 



7 



