34 



[July. 



The insect represented in the wood-cut is a stag beetle {Luccuius 



Elaphus, Fabr.), wbict was ob- 

 tained by tbe late Mr. Eaddon, 

 witb great numbers of other 

 American insects, from skim- 

 mings of turpentine barrels, in 

 London. It is a common North 

 American species, and is clearly 

 referable to the Lucanus Elaphus 

 of Fabricius, being a specimen 

 of the ordinary full size, and 

 (except in respect of the head), 

 must be considered as a male 

 judging from the structure of 

 the legs, both of the anterior tibia) 

 being long and narrow, and 

 neither of them short and broad, 

 as in the females of that species. 

 There is some slight difference 

 in the strength of the spines of 

 the four posterior tibiae, the hind ones being destitute of the middle 

 spines. Hence might arise the question whether the diminished size of 

 the left-hand half of the head might not be due to an arrest of develop- 

 ment, or to the importation into the specimen of so much of the 

 female organization ; the extraordinary development of the right lialf 

 of the head has necessitated a partial twisting of the neck, and the 

 structure and punctuation of the left hand half of the head and left 

 mandible is evidently that of the female, as well also as the shortened 

 left antenna. A memoir by myself on this and some other gynandro- 

 morphous insects was read at the Meeting of the Entomological 

 Society on the Gth June, 1S3G, but it has remained hitherto unpublished, 

 together with the figures with which it was illustrated. I find f I'om my 

 notes that the Avings were wanting in IMr. Eaddon's specimen, thus 

 indicating a certain deficiency of organization, and that, on examining 

 the internal condition of the abdomen (so far as could be done in the 

 dried condition of the specimen), no traces of the large male organ 

 were to be found, a pair of terminal lobes, only such as are to be seen in 

 a female stag beetle, being perceivable. Figures of the under-side of 

 the head, and of the terminal segment of the abdomen, will be given 

 in my next article. I regret not to be able to state what became of 

 the specimen here figured at the sale of Mr. Eaddon's collection. 



