Chap. X. 
COLEOPTEHA. 
373 
which comes next to Onitis) has a similar slight crest 
on the thorax, and the male has in the same situation a 
great projection. So again there can be no doubt that 
the little point (a) on the head of the female Onitis 
furcifer , as well of the females of two or three allied 
.species, is a rudimentary representative of the cephalic 
horn, which is common to the males of so many lamel- 
licorn beetles, as in Phanaeus, fig. 17. The males indeed 
of some unnamed beetles in the British Museum, which 
are believed actually to belong to the genus Onitis, are 
furnished with a similar horn. The remarkable nature 
of this case will be best perceived by an illustration : 
the Ruminant quadrupeds run parallel with the lamel- 
licorn beetles, in some females possessing horns as large 
as those of the male, in others having them much 
smaller, or existing as mere rudiments (though this is 
as rare with ruminants as it is common with Lamelli- 
corns), or in having none at all. Now if a new species 
of deer or sheep w 7 ere discovered with the female 
bearing distinct rudiments of horns, whilst the head 
of the male was absolutely smooth, we should have a 
oase like that of Onitis f urcifer . 
In this case the old belief of rudiments having been 
created to complete the scheme of nature is so far from 
holding good, that all ordinary rules are completely 
broken through. The view which seems the most pro- 
bable is that some early progenitor of Onitis acquired, 
like other Lamellicorns, horns on the head and thorax, 
and then transferred them, in a rudimentary condition, 
as with so many existing species, to the female, by whom 
they have ever since been retained. The subsequent 
loss of the horns by the male may have resulted through 
the principle of compensation from the development of 
the projections on the lower surface, whilst the female 
has not been thus affected, as she is not furnished with 
