The Sacred Beetle and Others 



described in the text-books;^ nor have I 

 seen the perfect insect while still enclosed 

 in its chamber in the ball, before it has 

 had any practice in its duties as a pill-roller 

 and excavator. And this is just what I 

 particularly wanted to see. I should have 

 hked to find the Dung-beetle In his native 

 eel, recently transformed, new to all labour, 

 so as to examine ^he workman's hand before 

 it started its work. I will tell you the reason 

 for this wish. 



Insects have at the end of each leg a sort 

 of finger, or tarsus as it is called, consisting 

 of a succession of delicate parts which may 

 be compared with the joints of our fingers. 

 They end in a hooked claw. One finger 

 to each leg: that is the rule; and this finger, 

 at least with the higher Beetles and notably 

 the Dung-beetles, has five phalanges or 

 joints. Now, by a really strange exception, 

 the Scarabs have no tarsi on their front 

 legs, while possessing very well-shaped ones, 

 with five joints apiece, on the two other 

 pairs. They are maimed, crippled: they 

 lack, on their fore-limbs, that which In the 

 insect very roughly represents our hand. 

 A similar anomaly occurs in the Onitis- and 



1 Cf. Mulsant's CoUopteres de France: Lamellicornes — 

 Author's Note. 



54 



