122 BRITISH BEETLES. 



meiit of the head and its appendages in most of its mem- 

 bers, this family has been raised by M. Lacordaire to the 

 rank of a section, equal in value to the Lamellicornes , 

 under the name of Pectinicornes. It must remain, how- 

 ever, for future observers to determine whether this 

 elevation be warranted ; for, until all the known Lamel- 

 licornes are dissected, it cannot be considered proved 

 that there exists no species of them with a nervous 

 system as in the Lucanida; it is moreover known that 

 there is a genus of the latter family (Passalus) wherein 

 the appendages of the head are not developed as in the 

 other Lucanidte, and whose nervous system is inter- 

 mediate between the two above-mentioned conditions; 

 there being also some of their larvae, which, whilst they 

 have no transverse folds, still have the anal orifice trans- 

 verse; thus uniting the two forms of difference. In 

 Lucanus cervus, moreover, the larva exhibits traces of 

 these folds on the front of its body. There is, also, 

 another genus (Sinodendrori) of the Lucanida, which 

 has an excess of development in the thorax of the male, 

 as in many of the species of Lamellicornes. 



The Lucanidae have ten-jointed antennae, with a long 

 basal joint ; the ligula membraneous or leathery, bilobed, 

 ciliated, and situated on the inner side of the mentum, 

 except in Sinodendron, where it is situated at the apex ; 

 the mandibles exposed, and often attaining an enormous 

 size in the male; the outer lobe of the maxillae not 

 toothed, and ending in a pencil of hair ; the sides of the 

 elytra covering the abdominal epipleura ; the prosternum 

 large ; the intermediate coxae transverse ; and the abdo- 

 men composed of five ventral segments, with an extra 

 segment in the male. 



Lucanus cervus, the ' ' stag-beetle," is well known to 



