14 PLATE CCCC. 



The Short-horned Stag-beetle is confidered by almoft ever)' writer 

 either as the female, or as a variety of the Linnasan Lucanus Cervus. 

 This opinion is controverted by Mr. Marfham, who informs us in 

 his Entomologia Britannica, that he has taken the two fexes of the 

 Cervus Lucanus together, in a ftate that can admit of no doubt, that 

 they were really the two fexes of that fpecies ; or, at lead, that there 

 are both males and females of the long-horned kind. At the fame 

 time the evidence of GeofFroy is adduced to prove ftill further, that 

 there are two diftin6t fexes of the Short-horned Stag Beetle, the 

 infe6t hitherto believed by many to be the true female of Cervus 

 Lucanus. 



The accuracy of the obfervations, upon which the affertions of 

 the above mentioned authors are founded, admits of little difpute : 

 that the infefts in queftion have been found in the fituation before 

 intimated we muft readily believe ; but as this might happen whether 

 they were in reality of the fame fpecies or not ; and as the opinion 

 generally fupported by authors of the firft refpe&ability is in favour 

 of the Short-homed Stag Beetle being the female of the other 

 kind, it is proper we mould fay a few words further refpe6ting 

 them. 



Roefel, in his defcriptien of the Cervus Lucanus, exprefsly tells 

 us, he has found the male of that infe6t and the Short-horned Stag 

 together, and concludes that they are of the fame fpecies. To this 

 may be added the authority of Linnaeus, who caught them in the 

 fame fituation, and naturally inferred, for the fame reaibn, that they 

 were the two fexes of an individual fpecies. Neither are thofe the 

 only writers, who mention the fame circumftance ; and befides thofe, 

 the faft is fufficiently well known to many practical collectors, who 

 have obferved them in the fame ftate, without in the leaft fufpe&ing 

 that they were in reality the male and female of two diftin6l, though 

 very analogous fpecies. 



When 



