﻿4 Major Parry's Catalogue 



as such I trust it may prove useful. Those Entomologists who 

 wish more particularly to study the sectional characters of the 

 various genera and sub-genera must consult the autliors previously 

 alluded to. The general arrangement I have adopted has been 

 based chiefly upon the publications of the Rev. F. W. Hope, 

 ])r. Burmeister, Professors Westwood and Lacordaire, combined 

 with certain alterations which it seemed to me convenient to 

 introduce ; but as great difference of opinion exists upon this 

 point, the grouping of the various families can scarcely be yet 

 regarded as definitively settled. 



Professor Westwood, in his remarks on the sectional characters 

 of the Lucanoid Coleoptera (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. iv. 273), 

 says, '• the number of joints in the club of the antennae at first 

 suggested itself, and indeed it had been already proposed by 

 M'Leay, as a primary sectional character; but this, in addition to 

 the difficulty of its employment, owing to the greater or less 

 development of the joint preceding the clava, was shown to be 

 inefficient, by separating species which agreed together in their 

 entire habitus." And I may upon this point further remark, 

 tliat not only this funiculus, but even the very joints of the clava, 

 are variable ; instances occurring (especially in the well-known 

 European species Lucanus cervus) where, in the same individual, 

 the clava is found to be both four and five-jointed. 



Professor Westwood then refers to the tibial spines as bringing 

 together in the most natural manner the great majority of the 

 species, stating that by the employment of this character the 

 genus Lucanus may be divided into three great groups — 



1. Those species with two or three spines on the outside of the 



posterior and intermediate tibia; ; this group comprises 

 some of the largest species of the family. 



2. Those with only one spine in the middle of the four posterior 



tibias in both sexes ; comprising the gigantic species of 

 Dorcus from the eastern hemisphere, as well as the small 

 typical Dorci of moderate climes, and the group of JEgus, 

 of which no Entomologist has been able to establish suffi- 

 cient characters to separate it from other sections of the 

 Lucan'idce, 



3. An extensive group of species which either possess no spines 



on the four posterior tibiae, or have one small spine de- 

 veloped in the middle of those tibiae in the $ only. 

 This character again is, I think, very unsatisfactory, these 

 spines being often found very aberrant, and, like the claval joints 

 of the antennae, not always to be relied upon ; an arrangement 



