The Bull Onthophagus: the Nymph 



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 

 the design of an incipient ornament, then the 

 former would be so too, in which case the 

 two sexes, both anxious for self-embellish- 

 ment, 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 Onthophagus, but a deriva- 

 tive 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 plant- 

 ing a spear upon his chine. Stranger still: 

 the female, always the more humbly attired 

 throughout the entomological kingdom, 

 would be vying with the male in her hanker- 

 ing after quaint adornment. An ambition 

 of this sort leaves me Incredulous. 



We must therefore believe that. If the 

 possibilities of the future should ever 

 produce a Dung-beetle carrying a horn upon 

 his corselet, this upsetter of present customs 

 will not be an Onthophagus who has suc- 

 ceeded in maturing the thoracic appendage 

 of the nymph, but rather an Insect resulting 



from a new model. The creative power 



419 



