106 COMMON BRITISH INSECTS. 



In some parts of the country it goes by the name of 

 HORN-BUG. 



This is the largest of the British Beetles, as it 

 sometimes attains a length of nearly three inches. 

 The size, however, is extremely variable, as some 

 males are barely half that length, and have their jaws 

 comparatively small and weak. These are generally 

 called undeveloped males, their inferiority being pro- 

 bably due to a want of food while in the larval state. 

 Lest, however, a small and degenerate race of Stag 

 Beetles should be perpetuated, the males always fight 

 for possession of the females, and the consequence is, 

 that none but the largest and strongest individuals 

 have a chance of obtaining a mate. 



The head and thorax of the Stag Beetle are 

 black, profusely punctured. The elytra are deep- 

 chestnut, becoming black on the margins, and at 

 first sight appear to be quite smooth, but are, in 

 reality, covered with the finest imaginable punctures. 

 The jaws are of the same colour as the elytra, and 

 the legs are black. The female is shaped like the 

 male, with the exception of the jaws, which are small, 

 curved, and sharply pointed. The head, too, is 

 smaller than that of the male, because the muscles 

 attached to the jaws are comparatively small. 



This Beetle is in some parts of England very 

 common, and in others not only rare, but absolutely 

 wanting. I hunted insects industriously at Oxford for 

 a series of years, and not only never saw a living Stag 

 Beetle within many miles of that city, and believe 

 that a specimen had never been taken in that locality. 

 There is no apparent reason why it should find that 



