Chap. X. Insects. 275 



Mutillidae; and here the females are likewise wingless. But 

 we are chiefly concerned with structures by which one male is 

 enabled to conquer another, either in battle or courtship, through 

 his strength, pugnacity, ornaments, or music. The innumerable 

 contrivances, therefore, by which the male is able to seize the 

 female, may be briefly passed over. Besides the complex structures 

 at the apex of the abdomen, which ought perhaps to be ranked 

 as primary organs, 2 "it is astonishing," as Mr. B. D. Walsh 3 has 

 remarked, " how many different organs are worked in by nature 

 " for the seemingly insignificant object of enabling the male to 

 '* grasp the female firmly." The mandibles or jaws are some- 

 times used for this purpose ; thus the male Corydalis cornutus (a 

 neuropterous insect in some degree allied to the Dragom-flies, &c.) 

 has immense curved jaws, many times longer than those of the 

 female ; and they are smooth instead of being toothed, so that 

 he is thus enabled to seize her without injury. 4 One of the 

 stag-beetles of North America (Lucanus elu/Jms) uses his jaws, 

 which are much larger than those of the female, for the same 

 purpose, but probably likewise for fighting. In one of the 

 sand- wasps (Ammophila) the jaws in the two sexes are closely 

 alike, but are used for widely different purposes : the males, as 

 Professor Westwood observes, " are exceedingly ardent, seizing 

 " their partners round the neck with their sickle-shaped jaws;" 6 

 whilst the females use these organs for burrowing in sand-banks 

 and making their nests. 



The tarsi of the front-legs are dilated in many male beetles, or 

 are furnished with broad cushions of hairs ; and in many genera 

 of water-beetles they are armed with a round flat sucker, so that 

 the male may adhere to the slippery body of the female. It is a 



2 These organs in the male often species having been observed in 



differ in closely-allied species, and union. Mr. MacLachlan informs 



afford excellent specific characters, me (vide ' Stett. Ent. Zeitung,' 



But their importance, from a tunc- 1867, s. 155) that when several 



tional point of view, as Mr. R. species of Phryganidae, which pre- 



MacLachlan has remarked to me, sent strongly-pronounced differences 



has probably been overrated. It of this kind, were confined together 



has been suggested, that slight dif- by Dr. Aug. Meyer, they coupled, 



ferences in these organs would and one pair produced fertile ova. 

 suffice to prevent the intercrossing 3 ' The Practical Entomologist, 



of well-marked varieties or incipient Philadelphia, vol. ii. May, 1867 



species, and would thus aid in their p 88. 



development. That this can hardly 4 Mr. Walsh, ibid. p. 107. 



be the case, we may infer from the 5 'Modern classification of In 



many recorded cases (see, for in- sects,' vol. ii. 1840, pp. 205, 206 



instance, Bronn, ' Geschichte der Mr. Walsh, who called my attention 



Natur,' B. ii. 1843, s. 164; and to the double use of the jaws, says 



Westwood, ' Transact. Ent. Soc.' that he has repeatedly observed 



rol. iii. 1842, p. 195) of distinct this fact. 



