100 INSECTS ABROAD. 



edged with deep black, and a broad belt of the same colour runs 

 along the sutures almost as far as the tip. Indeed, if other 

 species wore not known, we should have some difficulty in 

 deciding whether black or yellow is the ground-tint of the elytra, 

 so evenly arc the two colours balanced. 



There is one group of Oriental Stag Beetles which have the 

 elytra more or less dun, upon which is a certain amount of 

 black. They are gathered together under the generic title of 

 Odontolabris, a term composed of two Greek words signifying 

 " toothed forceps," and given to the Beetles on account of the 

 powerful teeth with which their pincer-like jaws are armed. 

 In all the species belonging to this genus, the e} r es are com- 

 pletely divided by a horny projection technically named the 

 " canthus," the club of the antenna? is formed of three joints, 

 and in the males the tibia? of the front pair of feet are armed 

 with spines on their outside edges, the corresponding joints in 

 the other limbs being smooth. 



It is an extremely puzzling genus, owing to the extraordinary 

 variation of form, size, and colour which prevails throughout it, 

 and which is so erratic that our best entomologists have been 

 perplexed about the systematic arrangement of the insects. The 

 insect which has been selected as an example is so variable that 

 it has been described and figured under different names, the so- 

 called species having been afterwards proved to be nothing more 

 than varieties. The name of this species is Odontolnhris Cuvera, 

 and the specimen from which the drawing was taken is a good 

 average example of the colouring. 



The head is large and squared, and in the front the upper edge 

 is flattened and turned up something like the brim of a hat. 

 The thorax is also squared, and at the hinder angles there are 

 two sharp points, separated by a deep rounded notch. Both 

 head and thorax are black. If the insect be turned over, each 

 side of the head is seen to be covered with a multitude of pits 

 about as large as those in a lady's thimble, a few of them, how- 

 ever, being much larger than the others. 



The elytra are warm yellow, and down their middle runs a 

 large black patch, shaped as shown in the illustration. Generally, 

 a narrow line of warm orange runs along the edge of the elytra 

 and skirts the black patch, but the variation in the fl n pth and 



