4 Major Parry’s Catalogue 
as such I trust it may prove useful. Those Entomologists who 
wish more particularly to study the sectional characters of the 
various genera and sub-genera must consult the authors previously 
alluded to. The general arrangement I have adopted has been 
based chiefly upon the publications of the Rev. F. W. Hope, 
Dr. Burmeister, Professors Westwood and Lacordaire, combined 
with certain alterations which it seemed to me convenient to 
introduce; but as great difference of opinion exists upon this 
point, the grouping of the various families can scarcely be yet 
regarded as definitively settled. 
Professor Westwood, in his remarks on the sectional characters 
of the Lucanoid Coleoptera (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. iv. 273), 
says, “the number of joints in the club of the antenne at first 
suggested itself, and indeed it had been already proposed by 
M‘Leay, asa primary sectional character; but this, in addition to 
the difficulty of its employment, owing to the greater or less 
development of the joint preceding the clava, was shown to be 
inefficient, by separating species which agreed together in their 
entire habitus.” And I may upon this point further remark, 
that not only this funiculus, but even the very joints of the clava, 
are variable; instances occurring (especially in the well-known 
European species Lucanus cervus) where, in the same individual, 
the clava is found to be both four and five-jointed. 
Professor Westwood then refers to the tibial spines as bringing 
together in the most natural manner the great majority of the 
species, stating that by the employment of this character the 
genus Lucanus may be divided into three great groups— 
1. Those species with two or three spines on the outside of the 
posterior and intermediate tibia; this group comprises 
some of the largest species of the family. 
2. Those with only one spine in the middle of the four posterior 
tibiae in both sexes; comprising the gigantic species of 
Dorcus from the eastern hemisphere, as well as the small 
typical Dorci of moderate climes, and the group of £gus, 
of which no Entomologist has been able to establish suffi- 
cient characters to separate it from other sections of the 
Lucanide. 
3. An extensive group of species which either possess no spines 
on the four posterior tibiae, or have one small spine de- 
veloped in the middle of those tibiz in the @ only. 
This character again is, I think, very unsatisfactory, these 
spines being often found very aberrant, and, like the claval joints 
of the antenna, not always to be relied upon; an arrangement 
