DR. F. LEUTHNER ON THE ODONTOLABINI. 393 
and illustrate an entire series in order to elucidate it sufficiently. But we shall often 
find that our language is too poor to express our observations correctly. 
In many Lucanide we find, as in domestic animals :— 
(1) Individual forms. 
(2) Varieties in form. 
(3) Colour varieties. 
(4) Geographical races or subspecies. 
(5) Apparent monstrosities. 
The extent which an author allows to a species will depend on his point of view, and 
on his conscientiousness. 
It is difficult to ascertain the exact limits of species, race, and variety in many of our 
European Lucanide, notwithstanding the careful study which Dr. Kraatz and others 
have given to the subject; and the same difficulty reappears, but greatly augmented, 
when we come to study the multitudinous forms of the Odontolabini. 
It will always remain a moot point whether 0. sinensis, O. cuvera, O. delesserti, and 
O. burmeisteri should be regarded simply as local varieties or as independent species. 
(1) Among the immense amount of material at my disposal I find specimens which 
appear to be more or less intermediate between 0. sinensis and O. mouhoti or 
O. cuvera. 
(2) Small males and females occur which cannot be assigned with certainty to either 
O. cwvera or O. delesserti. 
(3) Intermediate forms occur between 0. delesserti and O. burmeisteri, which establish 
their close relationship, and which might induce many authors to regard them as 
identical. But the extreme forms of apparently well-developed males and females 
furnish equally strong grounds for regarding them as distinct species. 
Where the coloration is confined to the upper surface of the elytra, as in 0. wol- 
lastoni and its allies, and the lower edge remains black in both sexes, it is still more 
difficult to separate the species, as we may logically look for “artificial selection,” and 
attempt to draw a line which may not have any real existence in nature, as our sup- 
posed species may probably interbreed, and produce fertile offspring, notwithstanding 
their differences of colour. 
I have taken much trouble in seeking for anatomical characters to decide this delicate 
question, but hitherto without result. 
Whereas the chitinous portions of the male sexual organs of the Cetoniide and 
Carabide have been found by Kraatz and Thomson to furnish impertant characters 
to separate otherwise scarcely distinguishable species, I found these characters quite 
valueless in most of the species of the Lucanide, and the form and armature of the 
lateral valves of the penis are alike in all the Odontolabini, although I found them 
very differently formed in various species of Dorcini. 
I nevertheless examined the male sexual organs in a large number of Lucanide, and 
VoL. XI.—ParT x1. No. 2.—November, 1885. 3N 
