62 OUTLINES OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



Our largest species, Lucanus elaphus, Fab., occurs most abundantly 

 in the southern States, but is often taken as far north as St. Louis. This 

 js indeed a formidable looking insect. It is very hard and smooth, of 

 a mahogany-brown color, the body one and one-half inch^rin length, 

 and the immense mandibles extending forward three-fourths of an inch 

 more. It is from the resemblance of these to the antlers of a deer 

 that it receives the most appropriate name of " Stag beetle." Lucanus 

 dama, Hum., is the most common " Pinch beetle," and often enters our 

 rooms on summer evenings to the terror of nervous people, whom it 

 could not injure, but to whom it might give a severe pinch with its 

 sharply toothed jaws, which curve inward and are about one-fourth 

 inch long. The beetle is of the same form and texture, but a little 

 lighter in color and considerably smaller than the southern Stag beetle. 



Another large beetle belonging in this group is the Horned Passalus 

 {Passalus cornutus, Fab.). This is a shining black species of an oblong 

 form, having the squarish pro-thorax separated on top from the abdomen 

 by a decided "waist" or constriction. The wing covers are longi- 

 tudinally grooved. In this species the jaws are not abnormally en- 

 larged, but on each side of the head is a little pointed horn, and 

 between them a longer one curving downward over the mouth. This 

 beetle is usually one and one-fourth inch^n length. 



The typical Lamellicornia are, for convenience, separated 

 into two divisions, in consideration of their different feeding habit 

 chiefly, viz. : the JExcreinentivora, the larviie of which mostly breed in 

 manure, and Herhivora, in which the larv?e feed on vegetation, either 

 growing or dead. In the first division the principal families are the 

 Copridce, Aphodiidcb and Trogidm. 



They are all scavengers and rank either as beneficial or innoxious. 

 The largest species, Copris Carolina, Lim., is a great, squarish, clumsy 

 creature, nearly an inch long and three-fourths inch wide, that frequently 

 flies into our lighted rooms at night, and after bumping about against 

 the walls and ceiling falls to the floor with a thud, generally landing 

 upon its back, and lying helpless, kicking its legs about wildly in the 

 effort to turn over. It is of a black color, somewhat hairy on the under 

 surface and legs, and the latter have the shanks, of the fore legs ex- 

 panded and notched for use in digging, as is characteristic of all the 

 Lamellicorns. The female beetle tunnels perpendicularly under the 

 droppings of cows and horses, and at the bottom of the hole places a 

 large round ball of manure on which she deposits an egg. The larva, 

 an unsightly, much- wrinkled grub, very thick in the middle and taper- 

 ing toward each end, works its way into this compact ball, and beginning 

 somewhere near the middle, eats toward the surface until it is reduced 



