HISTOKY OF THE STAG BEETLE. 123 



females, and the consequence is, that none but the largest and 

 strongest individuals have a chance of obtaining a mate. 



The head and thorax of the Stag Beetle are black, profusely 

 punctured. The elytra are deep-chestnut, becoming black on 

 the margins, and at first sight appear to be quite smooth, but 

 are, in reality, covered with the finest imaginable punctures. 

 The jaws are of the same colour as the elytra, and the legs are 

 black. The female is shaped like the male, with the exception 

 of the jaws, which are small, curved, and sharply pointed. The 

 head, too, is smaller than that of the male, because the muscles 

 attached to the jaws are comparatively small. The peculiar 

 maxillae, with their hairy inner lobes, can be seen on page 9, 

 Fig. 46. When in their places, these lobes are close together, 

 and look like a yellow tongue. 



This Beetle is in some parts of England very common, and 

 in others not only rare, but absolutely wanting. I hunted 

 insects industriously at Oxford for a series of years, and not 

 only never saw a living Stag Beetle within many miles of that 

 city, but never knew that a specimen had been taken in that 

 locality. There is no apparent reason why it should find that 

 Oxford does not suit it, for the same trees flourish there as 

 they do in Kent, where it is one of the commonest of the 

 Beetle tribe, and the same water that flows past Oxford rolls 

 through the Thames valley of Kent. Whatever may be the 

 reason, the fact exists ; and I well remember my gratification 

 and astonishment when I first saw the Stag Beetles flying 

 about nearly as plentifidly as Cockchafers or Dor Beetles. 



The larva of this insect somewhat resembles that of the 

 Eose Beetle, and lives in rotten wood. I have tried to rear 

 this larva, but unsuccessfully, as the creature ivould die before 

 it had become full-fed. Indeed, I never saw the larva even 

 attempt to eat, though I kept it in a mass of the same wood 

 in which it was living when captured. One specimen, however, 

 which is now alive on my desk, did eat the white paper lining 

 of the box ; but it entirely refused the decayed wood, though I 

 repeatedly placed scraps of its natural food within its jaws. One 

 of these larvae is represented on Plate V. Fig. 5, as it appears in 

 its home. The oak supplies its favourite food, but it also lives in 

 the willow ; and, according to some entomologists, the willow-fed 

 specimens are smaller than those which live in the oak. These 



