BEETLES THAT "BLUFF" 215 



however, " soon ran away, acknowledging himself 

 vanquished." In this case, it is to be noted, the 

 combatants lacked weapons. With the Stag Beetle it 

 is otherwise, and this species is said to engage in fierce 

 conflicts. Darwin cites an instance where two males 

 were enclosed with one female in a box, when the larger 

 severely pinched the smaller one, until he resigned his 

 pretensions. This being so, it is curious to find that 

 the female, which makes no display of pugnacity, has 

 the stronger jaws. The fact that there are so few records 

 of fighting among male Beetles, and the absence of 

 injury to the highly-polished surfaces of the horns or 

 jaws where these are conspicuously large, seem to 

 indicate that at most no more than a semblance of fighting 

 ever takes place. In a North American Stag Beetle 

 (Lucanus elaphus) the jaws, which are greatly developed, 

 are used, Darwin tells us, for seizing the female, but they 

 do not appear to be employed for this purpose in any 

 other species. It might be held that they play the part 

 of terrifying agents, as the eye-spots of Caterpillars and 

 adult Lepidoptera are believed to do. At any rate, they 

 seem to be so used in the case of a Beetle of South Chile 

 {Chiasmognathus grantit) wherein the jaws are of great 

 size and have their inner edges toothed. When threatened 

 " he faces round, opens his great jaws, and at the same 

 time stridulates freely." But this parade of force is 

 evidently no more than " bluffing," for Darwin, who 

 describes this behaviour, remarks, " the mandibles were 

 not strong enough to pinch my finger so as to cause 

 actual pain." In the female, it may be remarked, the 

 jaws are quite small. 



That too much stress has been laid upon the signifi- 

 cance of the enlarged jaws and other hypertrophied 



