﻿66 Major Parry's Catalogue 



to some of the sub-genera belonging to the Dynaslidce, and already 

 alluded to by various authors, renders it somewhat perplexing to 

 assign for it any satisfactory place among the Lucanoid Coleoptera. 

 Mr. White (1. c.) remarks that this insect approximates both 

 to Lamprinia and B/ii/ssojwtus. Professor Westwood, in his notice 

 of the species (vid. 'J'r. Ent. Soc, N, S., vol. 3, p. 213), regards 

 it as an obscure representative of SphenognathuSf with the mouth 

 of a Sinode?idron, alluding at the same time to the female as being 

 apterous; and, finally. Monsieur Lacordaire, in his invaluable 

 work on the Genera of Coleoptera, to which I have already had 

 such frequent occasion to allude, although placing it with the 

 LamprlmidcB, mentions that from the remarkable character of its 

 legs the species appears to be rather allied to the Dynaslidce than 

 to the Lucanidce. In this view I am disposed to coincide, but 

 have nevertheless, under the circumstances, placed it provisionally 

 at the end of my arrangement, immediately after the genus Slno- 

 dendron, thus establishing the connecting link between the Luca- 

 noid Coleoptera and the Di/nastidce. 



Note. — At one or two recent meetings of the Entomological Society, " di- 

 morphism" or " polymorphism" lias been the subject of discussion. This 

 singular phenomenon is very marked in the Lucanoid Coleoptera ; and 

 the existence of diverse forms of the same species, often exhibiting dif- 

 ferences in their structural characters, renders necessaiy an acquaintance 

 with a series of varieties of each separate species before we can arrive at 

 a correct classification of this interesting group. — F. J. S. P., May, 1864. 



