Kirby has remarked (and I have observed the same fact) that the anterior tarsi, or feet, of many male dung-feeding beetles are often broken off; he examined seventeen specimens in his own collection, and not one had even a relic left.

In the Onites apelles the tarsi are so habitually lost that the insect has been described as not having them.

In some other genera they are present, but in a rudimentary condition.