JAWS OF THE STAG BEETLE. 107 



Oxford does not suit it, for the same trees flourish 

 there as they do in Kent, where it is one of the 

 commonest of the Beetle tribe, and the same water 

 that flows past Oxford rolls through the Thames 

 valley of Kent. Whatever may be the reason, the 

 fact exists ; and I well remember my gratification 

 and astonishment when I first saw the Stag Beetles 

 flying about nearly as plentifully as Cockchafers or 

 Dor Beetles. 



The larva of this insect somewhat resembles that 

 of the Rose Beetle, and lives in rotten wood. 



The oak supplies its favourite food, but it also 

 lives in the willow ; and, according to some entomo- 

 logists, the willow-fed specimens are smaller than 

 those which live in the oak. These larvae often do 

 very great harm, their powerful jaws enabling them 

 to eat into the living as well as the dead wood, and 

 into the roots themselves. It remains in the larval 

 state for at least four, and perhaps as much as six years, 

 and when it is about to become a pupa, makes for 

 itself a cocoon out of the wood-chips with which it is 

 surrounded. 



The jaws of the male are quite as formidable 

 weapons as they appear to be, the muscles which 

 close them being very powerful, and their sharp and 

 strong teeth inflicting a severe bite. Mr. Curtis 

 mentions that the jaws retain the power of biting 

 long after the head has been separated from the body, 

 and that in one case when a severed head of a Stag 

 Beetle was taken home in the evening, it retained 

 on the following morning sufficient power to pinch 

 the finger. Still, severe as is the bite of the male 



