8C0TT-C0LE0PTERA, LAMELLICORNIA AND ADEPHAGA 221 



Lucanidse. 



FiGULUs MacLeay, Horae Ent., i. 1819, p. 110. 



1. Figulus striatus (Olivier). 



Lucanus striatus Olivier, Ent., i. 1. 1789, p. 19, PI. IV, fig. 14. 



Figulus striatus Alluaud, Liste Coleopt., p. 298 ; Kolbe, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, v. 

 1910, p. 22. 



30 specimens were obtained in the Seychelles and 3 in Aldabra. I have also 

 examined in the British Museum some older specimens from the Seychelles, a number 

 from Mauritius, and 2 from Reunion. The material thus examined falls into two distinct 

 groups as follows : 



A. Specimens from the Seychelles. The thorax is very smooth and very little 

 punctured. The punctures on its lateral portions are so very fine as to be hardly visible 

 without a high power. The median longitudinal punctured area is little impressed, and 

 does not reach to the anterior and posterior mar-gins of the thorax, but is obliterated 

 in front over nearly ^ the length of the thorax and to a less extent behind. (The 

 specimens were obtained at different dates and in several different islands of the 

 Seychelles group.) 



B. Specime7is from Aldabra, Mauritius and Reunion. Lateral portions of the 

 thorax fairly strongly punctured, this character being specially marked in the 3 specimens 

 from Aldabra. Median longitudinal punctured area reaching almost if not quite to the 

 anterior and posterior margins ; in the specimens from Mauritius it is markedly impressed. 

 Punctuation of the elytral sulci slightly stronger. The specimens from Aldabra have the 

 head more strongly punctured. 



Form A may be said to be characterised by reduction of punctuation in comparison 

 with form B. I have been unable to find other characters separating the two forms. 

 The basal part of the redeagus* varies in breadth, but not (as far as I have seen) in such 

 a way as to divide form A from form B. External sexual differences are not conspicuous : 

 the mandibles are usually larger in the $, but the sexes cannot always be determined 

 without dissection. In both sexes the left mandible has 2 rather blunt teeth, the right 

 mandible only 1 (this computation includes neither the apex of the mandible nor a blunt 

 protuberance at its base). The wide head with its margin distinctly siiuiate in front of 

 either eye is characteristic. The length (inch mandibles) in my Seychelles specimens 

 ranges from 13f to 17^ nun. : an immature specimen from Aldabra reaches only 11 mm. 



* The S genital apparatus in Figulus striatus possesses a long thin membranous rtagellum. Tiiis is not 

 present in F. seychelhnsis, nor in some specimens from the British Museum wliicli 1 refer to /'. marginalis 

 Ritsema. Judging from this very important difference, Mr F. Muir and Dr Sharp, Ijoth of whom examined the 

 specimens, consider that probably the present genus Figulus should be divided. All species of the genus, 

 however, would have to be examined for this character before a division could be satisfactorily nia<lc ; and 

 until this is done it seems best in a faunistic paper like the present to include both striatus and seychellensis 

 under the name Figulus. 



