44 LUCANID.E. 



1. Lucanus laminifer. (Plate III, fig. 5 ; Plate V, fig. 2.) 



Litcanus laminifer Wat..* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) v, 1890, p. 33 ; 

 Aid to the Identification of Insects, ii, 1890, pi. 186, figs. 4 & 5 ; 

 Planet, Essai Monogr. ii, 1899. p. 53, figs. 27 & 28. 



Reddish-brown or chocolate, with the outer margins dark and 

 parts of the femora and tibi?e red. The body clothed above 

 and beneath with fine close-h'ing greyish hair ; the female 

 darker in colour, with a sparser clothing, the femora and 

 tibiae black. The body is convex and rather elongate. The 

 club of the antenna consists of four long joints of equal length. 

 The prosternum only slightly j^rominent behind and rounded. 



$. The head is closely and coarsely rugose and rather sharply 

 angulate on each side before the eye. The pronotuni is smooth 

 and shining in the middle, where it is finel}' and s})arsely 

 punctured, closely punctured at the front margm and very 

 densely punctured and opaque at the sides. The front angles 

 are blunt, the sides rounded to the lateral angle, which is 

 blunt but distinct, and nearly straight to the hind angle, which 

 is broadl}" rounded. The scutellum is closely punctured. The 

 elytra are finely punctured and shining near the suture, the 

 punctures becoming closer towards the sides and apices, where 

 they are very dense. 



^. The head is short but not wide and the mandibles are 

 very slender and not far apart. The upper surface of the head 

 is coriaceous and opaque and bears three transversely placed 

 strong erect elevations, one in the middle and one on each side 

 near the hind margin, rather widel}- separated and a little 

 oblique. The front angles of the head are sharply produced 

 laterall}' and the eye-ridges fairly prominent at the end. The 

 epistome is long, narrow and sharply pointed, and there is a 

 strong transverse clypeal ridge, sometimes straight and 

 sometimes curved. The pronofutn is finely and closely 

 punctured in the middle, densely rugose and opaque at the 

 sides. The front angles are acute, the sides nearly straight to 

 near the middle, where they are bluntly angulate, and nearly 

 straight from there to the blunt hind angles. The elytra are 

 finely and closely punctured upon the dorsal part, the 

 punctures becoming denser towards the sides, and the lateral 

 part finely rugose and opaque. The front tibia has a rather 

 long terminal fork, succeeded by about four sharp lateral 

 teeth, and there is also a long sliarp tooth at the point of 

 insertion of the tarsus on the lower surface. The mandibles 

 are ver}^ long and slender and bear numerous small tubercles 

 along the inner edge, a tooth at the base on the dorsal side 

 and a longer one beneath, a little farther forward. 



* -An asterisk after the name of a s[)eeies indicates that a type or 

 co-type has been examined. 



