How young horned beetles use their horns

This video says about itself:

Onthophagus (Palaenthophagus) sp.

Orden Coleoptera, Suborden Poliphaga, Infraorden Scarabaeiformia, Superfamilia Scarabaeoidea, Familia Scarabaeidae

From Biology News Net:

The function of horned beetles’ wild protrusions has been a matter of some consternation for biologists.

Digging seemed plausible; combat and mate selection, more likely.

Even Charles Darwin once weighed in on the matter, suggesting — one imagines with some frustration — the horns were merely ornamental.

In this month’s American Naturalist (Dec. 2006) and the Nov. 2006 issue of Evolution, Indiana University Bloomington scientists present an entirely new function for the horns: during their development, Onthophagus horned beetles use their young horns as a sort of can opener, helping them bust out of thick larval shells.

The finding will surprise anyone who assumed hornless Onthophagus adults (usually the females) never form the horns in the first place.

They do, the scientists say, but the nubile horn tissue is reabsorbed before the beetles’ emergence as adults.

Scarlet malachite beetle in Britain: here.