PLATE CCCC. 15 



When two Infe&s, however diffimilar in appearance, occur together 

 m this ftate, it is a natural concluiion, that they are the two fexes of 

 the fame fpecies. This is pretty generally, but not invariably the 

 fact. It requires only a very curfory attention, for example, to the 

 genera of Cicada and Coccinella to prove, that the moft promifcuou3 

 intercourfe prevails between the two fexes of the greater number of 

 fpecies in thofe extenfive genera ; and that the varieties arifing from 

 this intercoufe of the fexes are the fource of inexplicable confufion 

 to the entomologift; a fpurious brood being by that means intro- 

 duced, that cannot eafily be reduced to either of the parent 

 species. The fame applies, though certainly with a lefs degree 

 of latitude, to fome larger infects, efpecially in the Coleoptera 

 tribe. We muft allow, that, though it is almoft a conclufive evidence, 

 when we find infects of the two fexes coupled together, that they 

 are of the fame fpecies; but it does not follow, as a matter of 

 certainty, that they are fuch : the concluiion is fpecious, and in 

 general correct, but we cannot always depend on it. Even fo it 

 appears with regard to the Long-horned and Short-horned Stag 

 Beetles : when we find, as is not unfrequently the cafe, thofe two 

 infects connected together, we conclude, they are the true male 

 and female of the fame fpecies ; and probably without further ex- 

 amination affent to the popular notion, that the horned kind is the 

 male, and the hornlefs fort the female, whereas perhaps the very 

 reverfe might with a flight attention be fometimes discovered ; we 

 might detect the horned female with the hornlefs male. It is a 

 little remarkable we muft indeed confefs, in admitting that there 

 are males and females of both kinds, that thofe rovers mould fo rarely 

 occur in connection with the infects, which nature has ordained as 

 their refpective mates. 



It has been previously remarked, that we may reft affured at leaft, 

 that there are males as well as females both of the Short and the 

 Long-horned Stag Beetles. Geoffroy is believed to have been the 

 firft writer, who difcovered the error of confounding the former with 

 the female of the latter : he defcribes the Short-homed kind under 



the 



