3G8 INSECTA. 



organs always consist of ten joints, the first of which is usually much the 

 longest The mandibles are always corneous, most commonly salient and 

 larger, and even very different in the males. The maxilla?, in most of them, 

 are terminated by a narrow, elongated and silky lobe; those of others are 

 entirely corneous and dentated. The ligula in the greater number is formed 

 of two small silky pencils, projecting more or less beyond an almost semi- 

 circular or square mentum. The anterior legs are most frequently elongated, 

 and their tibiae dentated along the whole of the outer side. The tarsi terminate 

 by two equal and simple hooks with a little appendage terminated by two 

 setae between them. The elytra covers the whole of the abdomen above. 



We will divide it into two sections, corresponding to the genera Lucanus 

 and Passalus of Olivier. 



In the first we find the antennae strongly geniculate, glabrous or but slightly 

 pilose; the labrum very small or confounded with the epistoma; maxillae 

 terminated by a membranous or coriaceous, very silky, penicilliform lobe; 

 without teeth, or at most with but one; and a ligula either entirely concealed 

 or incorporated with the mentum, or divided into two narrow, elongated, silky 

 lobes extending more or less beyond the mentum. The scutellum is situated 

 between the elytra. 



The first section will form the genus 



LUCANUS. 



The larva of the L. cervus > which inhabits the interior of the oak for several 

 years previous to its final metamorphosis, is considered as the Costus of the 

 Romans, or that verminiform animal which they regarded as a delicious 

 article of food. 



L, cervut, L. (The Stag Beetle.) The male two inches in length, and 

 larger than the female ; black, with brown elytra ; head wider than the body ; 

 mandibles very large, arcuated, with three very stout teeth ; two of which are 

 at the end and diverge, the other is in the inner side, all furnished with small 

 ones. The female, called Doe, has a narrower head and much smaller man- 

 dibles. It flies at night in the heat of summer. Its size and mandibles vary. 

 It is to one of these varieties that we must refer the Lucane checre of Olivier, 

 or the L. cajireolus of Fabricius. The Lucanus, so called by Linmviis, is a 

 species from North America, and very distinct from the preceding. 



The subgenera are Sinodendron, Msalus, Lamprima, &c. 



The Lucanides of our second section have their antennae simply arcuated, or 

 but slightly geniculate and pilose; the labrum always exposed, crustaceous, and 

 transversal; the mandibles strong and much dentated, but without any very 

 remarkable sexual difference; the maxilla? entirely corneous, with at least 

 two strong teeth; the ligula equally corneous or very hard, situated in a 

 superior emargi nation of the mentum, and terminated by three points; the 

 abdomen pediculated, presenting the scutellum above, and separated from the 

 thorax by a strangulation of considerable interval They form the genus 



