IXSECTA. 125 



striated ; lives in rotten wood, bread, or granaries, -where 

 their larvae, which are white, leather-skinned, and spotted 

 with dark points, commit great devastation. They abound 

 in the south of France, where they are known under the 

 name of Cadelle. 



The Stay Beetle (lucanus cervus), also termed Horned 

 Beetle, plate 22, fig. 14. The males have very large 

 mandibles, curved and toothed like stag horns ; those of 

 the females are smaller, from which they receive their 

 name. They live in the oak forests, are most numerous 

 in June or July, and are considered somewhat formid- 

 able, as they can wound severely with their pincers. By 

 way of amusement, they are harnessed to little sleighs or 

 wagons made for the purpose, Avhich they draw easily 

 with their horns. Their larvae was esteemed a dainty 

 by the old Romans. When ready to pass through their 

 transformation, they make a cell of loam or clay, which 

 becomes almost as hard as if burned in a pottery. 



The Rhinoceros Beetle (oryctes nasicorncs) , plate 22, 

 fig. 12, belongs to the largest order of European beetles; 

 is more than twelve lines in length ; reddish-brown ; has 

 a protruding knob on the thorax, which, in the males is 

 furnished with three teeth. The head is surmounted by 

 a long horn, measuring from three to four lines, that 

 curves backwards ; the females, instead of this cornuted 

 appendage, are distinguished by a knob or wart; the 

 under portion of the body is hairy. The eggs are depos- 

 ited in tan, rotten wood, or dung heaps ; the larvae un- 

 dergo their metamorphosis in a large, smooth cave, formed 

 by themselves in the earth. These beetles, which are by 

 no means common, appear in June or July. 



The Hercules (oryctes hercules), plate 22, fig. 16, is 

 more than five inches long, and brownish-black ; the 



