Horned Passalus Beetle

In the middle of a Southeastern Five-Lined Skink adventure, I spotted this beetle roaming around a tree stump.

At first I thought he was cute until I took a closer look...

On his head he had these little round brownish red egg like items that looked very out of place.

I wasn't sure if this was some strange way for it to carry it's eggs with it.

Or was it in fact infested with some form of parasite?

When I researched this Beetle online I did not find any images that had these round egg/parasite items.

If you have any insight please share. I hope the Beetle is ok and maybe I can find a healthy one next time so my pictures aren't quite as shocking!

Thanks for visiting and stay safe out there!

All pictures taken by @rawruss with a Nikon D3400 w/ 40mm Macro Lens in August 2018 in North Florida.