94 THE LIFE AND LOVE OF THE INSECT 



Pushed further still, the question becomes more com- 

 plicated. The horny appendages of the Onthophagus, of 

 the Copris, of Minotaurus and of so many others are the 

 male's prerogative ; the female is without them or wears 

 them only on a reduced and very modest scale. We 

 must look upon these corniculate products as personal 

 ornaments much rather than as implements of labour. 

 The male makes himself fine for the pairing ; but, with 

 the exception of Minotaurus, who phis down the dry pellet 

 that needs crushing and holds it in position with his 

 trident, I know none that uses his armour as a tool. 

 Horns and prongs on the forehead, crests and crescents 

 on the corselet are jewels of masculine vanity and nothing 

 more. The other sex requires no such baits to attract 

 suitors : its femininity is enough ; and finery is neglected. 



Now here is something to give us food for thought. 

 The nymph of the Onthophagus of the female sex, a 

 nymph with an unarmed forehead, carries on its thorax 

 a vitreous horn as long, as rich in promise as that of the 

 other sex. If this latter excrescence be an incompletely- 

 realized incipient ornament, then the former would be 

 so too, in which case the two sexes, both anxious for 

 self-embellishment, would work with equal zeal to grow 

 a horn* upon their thorax. We should be witnessing the 

 genesis of a species that would not be really an Ontho- 

 phagus, but a derivative of the group ; we should be 

 beholding the commencement of singularities banished 

 hitherto from among the Dung-beetles, none of whom, of 

 either sex, has thought of planting a spear upon his chine. 

 Stranger still : the female, always the more humbly 

 attired throughout the entomological order, would be 

 vying with the male in her propensity for eccentric adorn- 

 ment. An ambition of this sort leaves me incredulous. 



