The Sacred Beetle and Others 



The Bull Onthophagus is not the only one 

 endowed with these fleeting appendages, 

 which completely disappear when the nymph 

 sheds its clothes. The other members of 

 the tribe possess similar horny manifesta- 

 tions on their bellies and corselets. One of 

 them, the Spectral Onthophagus, on achieving 

 the perfect state, adorns the front of his 

 corselet with four tiny studs arranged in a 

 semicircle. The two end ones stand alone; 

 the two middle ones are together. Jhese 

 last correspond exactly with the base of the 

 nymph's thoracic horn and might easily be 

 taken for the atrophied remnant of the 

 vanished appendage. We must abandon 

 this idea, however, for the lateral studs, 

 which are more developed than the middle 

 ones, occupy points where the nymph had no 

 horns. In this Onthophagus, as in the 

 others, the nymphal armour is misleading 

 and abortive. 



Certain Dung-beetles related to the On- 

 thophagi likewise possess horned nymphs. 

 One of these is the Yellow-footed Oniti- 

 cellus, the only one whom circumstances have 

 allowed me to examine from this point of 

 view. He wears, in the nymphal stage, a 

 magnificent horn on his corselet and a row 

 of four spikes on each side of his abdomen, 



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