LUCANI. 8EEEICOKNIA 



129 



flies well, with a considerable humming noise, during the hot- 

 test part of the day ; and goes from flower to flower (not con- 

 fining itself to Roses, but seeming to prefer them), sucking the 

 honey from their interior, and sometimes devouring their necta- 

 ries. The larvae of most of the allied species live in rotten wood, 

 and the perfect insects of some of them feed upon leaves. 



711. The Lucani, or Stag-beetles, derive their common name 

 from the peculiar form of the mandibles, which are very large, 

 curved, and toothed, like stags' horns (Fig. 416). The Lucanus 

 cervus, a highly-characteristic species of the group, is one of the 

 largest of British insects, the males being two inches or more in 

 length. This species flies about in the 



evening, in the middle of the summer 

 especially round the oaks, upon the 

 wood of which it feeds during the larva 

 state, in which it remains for several 

 years before undergoing its final trans- 

 formation. The accompanying figure 

 represents the .Dorcus parallelipipedus, 

 or small Stag-beetle of this country ; 

 which is far less striking than the 

 larger species in regard to the deve- 

 lopment of its mandibles. Some of the 

 exotic species of this group are very large and splendidly co- 

 loured. 



712. The next tribe, SERRICORNIA, is distinguished by the 

 toothed or serrated form of the antennae. Some of this group, 

 having the body of solid consistence and oval in form, have the 

 head buried, as it were, in the thorax, which advances on its 

 two sides, nearly as far as the mouth ; whilst at the hinder part 

 of the prosternum there is a small cavity, which receives the 

 point of a spine, springing from the anterior margin of the second 

 thoracic segment. In this manner is formed the Buprestis, dis- 

 tinguished for the splendour of its colours ; many of its species 

 having spots of golden hue upon an emerald ground ; whilst in 

 others, azure glitters upon the gold. The largest and most bril- 

 liant species are found chiefly in tropical climates, which these 



FIG. 447. DORCUS PARALLELT- 



PIPEDU8. 



