Onthophagi and Oniticelli 



regard those rapiers on the nose as queer, 

 their wearers are of another opinion; and 

 the most eccentric enjoy the highest favour. 

 (The smallest extra pimple, springing up by 

 accident, is an added beauty which may decide 

 the choice among the suitors. The best- 

 adorned captivate the mothers, perpetuate 

 the breed and hand down to their offspring 

 the cornicle or the knob that caused their 

 triumph. Thus by degrees was the orna- 

 mentation at which the entomologist wonders 

 to-day formed and transmitted from genera- 

 tion to generation, improving as it went. 



To this dictum of the evolutionists the 

 nymph of the Onthophagus replies as fol- 

 lows : 



" I have on my back a budding horn, the 

 germ of a bit of ornamentation that can be 

 very handsome, as witness the Bison Bubas, 

 who turns it into a splendid prow-shaped 

 protuberance; witness also various exotic 

 relatives of mine, who lengthen their corselet 

 into a magnificent spur. I possess the where- 

 withal to bring about a revolution among 

 my kin. If I retained it, my bump, that 

 charming innovation, would relegate my 

 rivals to the second rank; I should be pre- 

 ferred above all others; I should become 

 the founder of a family; and my descendants, 



267 



