iN ae CPLA OGCUE OF Sr RE LUCANIDAE 
iti COLDE CLIO Or THE, INDIAN 
MUSEUM. 
By F. H. Gravety, M.Sc., Asst. Superintendent, Indian 
Museum. 
(Plate XXIX.) 
The size and variability of the mandibles of male Lucanidae 
have naturally attracted special attention from the early writers 
on this family ; and the difficulty of correlating the sexes with 
certainty seems to have led to an undue neglect of the female. 
Leutner has, it is true, treated females as carefully as males in his 
monograph of the Odontolabinae; and a number of recently dis- 
covered species have been described from specimens of both sexes. 
But reasons for the traditional association of females with males 
seem in many species to have been too vague for record; and 
the most distinctive characteristics of the females of a number 
of well-known species seem still to remain undescribed. 
In the following short account of our collection I have there- 
fore paid special attention to females.' The determination of 
their subfamilies, and sometimes even genera, has been based on 
radition, and Iam doubtful whether any of my specific determi- 
nations are in disagreement with the associations commonly recog- 
nized in European museums. Butso far as our material permits, 
reasons for the association have been found and recorded, and atten- 
tion has been drawn to structural characters by which the females 
of various species may he recognized. 
In one instance the consideration of female characters has 
led me to suggest a change in generic definitions. The genera 
concerned are Hemisodorcus, Eurytrachelus and Dorcus of Van 
Roon’s catalogue.? 
The female of Hemisodorcus fulvonotatus was found to differ 
from that of H. nepalensis in having a pair of tubercles on the 
head instead of a single one; and the female of Dorcus suturalis 
! Except in the subfamily Odontolabinae, where Leutner has rendered this 
unnecessary, and in the subfamily Cladognathinae where our material, which is 
almost entirely Indian, is inadequate for this except in the genus Cladognathus. 
Outside this genus the association of opposite sexes of such species of Cladogna- 
thinae as we possess has been based on colour and locality. I have no doubt of 
the correctness of the determinations made, but have had no opportunity of con- 
sidering the differentiation of females of species differing in structure but not in 
colour. 
2 Coleopterorum Catalogus, Pt. 8, Lucanidae, Berlin, roto. 
