COLEOPTERA. — LUCANID^. 187 



claws, between which is a slender appendage, also terminated by two 

 bristles (^<7- 18. 7.). The elytra are large, and cover the entire ab- 

 domen. 



These insects are found during the day upon the trunks of trees, 

 old palings, &c., within which they have been bred. The males fly 

 in the evening in search of their mates, which are more sluggish, sel- 

 dom taking wing. The males appear to be much more numerous than 

 the females, and violent contests take place between the former for 

 the latter, during the period of their amours.* They live but a short 

 time in the perfect state, perishing soon after coupling and depositing 

 the eggs. The jaws were formerly employed in medicine, under the 

 name of the horns of the Scarabaei. They were also, according to 

 Pliny, suspended round the necks of children as amulets. The per- 

 fect insects feed, according to De Geer, on the honey-dew upon the 

 leaves of the oak ; they also feed upon the sap exuding from the 

 wounds of trees, which they lap up with their finely ciliated maxillae 

 and lower lip, A difficulty appears to exist in some of the insects of 

 this family (Chiasognathus), the mandibles being so much deflexed as 

 to render it a matter of difficulty, if not impossibility, for these organs 

 to come in contact with the food. Mr. G. Waterhouse has published 

 some notes on a male Stag-beetle in the first part of the Traus. J^nt. 

 Soc. p. vi., which fed upon moistened sugar and raspberries, which 

 last it Avounded with its mandibles, previous to applying its max- 

 illa. 



The females are said to use their mandibles, which are short, in form- 

 ing a hole in the trunks of trees for the reception of their eggs. There 

 are also some observations upon the habits of this insect recorded in 

 the Entomological Magazine, No. 1. by Mr. Davis, and in the Arbo- 

 retum Britannicum (Art. Qnercus). 



It would appear that, on certain occasions, these insects attack other 

 softer-bodied species ; Mr. Raddon having assured me that he once 

 observed a Lucanus descending a tree with a caterpillar in its jaws ; 

 and M. Chevrolat communicated an observation to the Entomological 

 Society of France (Annales, vol. iii. App. p. xi.), made upon L. jiaral- 

 lelipepidus by himself, and which was caught in the act of biting a 

 Helops caraboides for the purpose of sucking its fluid. 



The transformations of the Stag-beetle have been long ago traced and 

 figured by Rosel (Ins. Belust. vol. ii. pi. !•,), by whom also the sexual 



* See Davis, in Ent. Mog, vol. i. p. 86. 



