﻿124 BRITISH BEETLES. 



which became comparatively tame, and nipped rasp- 

 berries, etc., with its mandibles, sucking the juice after- 

 wards with its tongue. It also frequently cleaned the 

 club of its antennae, by drawing it between the patch of 

 yellow silky pubescence at the upper side of the base of 

 the anterior femora and the fringe of similar hairs on the 

 lower side of the coxae of the same legs. In Germany 

 there is (or used to be) a superstition that this beetle 

 carries hot coals in its jaws from place to place. 



Tlie eyes in Lucanus are considerably encroached 

 upon, both in front and behind, by the lateral margin of 

 the head; and have their greatest bulk on the lower 

 side. 



The larva of the stag-beetle takes about four years 

 before it assumes the pupa state : it is very large and 

 fleshy, of a semi-transparent yellowish white colour, with 

 a large reddish head. It is peculiar on account of the 

 anterior part of its body exhibiting certain slight trans- 

 verse folds, a character at variance with its allies. When 

 mature, it forms a cocoon of chips, in which it under- 

 goes its final metamorphoses ; the pupa exhibiting the 

 parts of the future perfect insect, — which, when dis- 

 closed, appears to remain quiet for some time before 

 coming into outer air. The larva feeds in the solid 

 wood, usually near the bark, and reduces it to a sort of 

 tan : it has been considered to be the '' Cossus " of the 

 Romans. 



An allied but much smaller species, Dorcus parallelo- 

 pipedus (Plate VIII, Fig. 4), has each eye almost divided 

 into two by a similar structure. It is flat, parallel, and 

 very stoutly built, looking as if a broad-wheeled waggon 

 had gone over it without inflicting any particular damage 

 beyond a slight compression. Its male and female have 



