A476 DR. F. LEUTHNER ON THE ODONTOLABINI. 
Linné (Mus. Lud. Ulr. p. 34) describes this species as follows :—‘ Scarabeus maxil- 
losus depressus, thorace mutico capite breviore, angulis posticis excavatis, Corpus 
totum depressum, nigrum, magnitudine Scarabei cervi; corporis pars antica sive 
thorax cum capite longitudine non cedit toti abdomini cum elytris. Caput depressum, 
leve, latere inferiore scabrum; maxillis apice tridentatis. Antenne Sc. cervi latere 
interiore lobate, fisse. Thorax levis, marginatus, antice subsinuatus, angulis posticis 
incisis. Pectus postice terminatum, angulo acuto. LElytra levia, glabra, non longiora 
thorace cum capite. Abdomen ratione animalis brevissimum. Pedes nigri; tibie 
apice villose. Tarsi quatuor. Habitat in Indiis.” 
This description may serve as a pattern of exactitude. Thunberg added to it 
as follows, in his monograph of Lucanide :—‘‘ Magnitudine L. cervi, femine, . . . caput 
quadrangulare, antico margine excisum, pro oculis complanatum.” He gave an indif- 
ferent but recognizable figure in his pl. xii. fig. 2. But notwithstanding these descrip- 
tions and the figure, the species has been incorrectly identified by all later authors. In 
all the large museums of Europe which I have visited, O. carinatus is represented 
either by O. siva from North India, or by 0. dellicosus from Java, to neither of which 
species will the Linnean description at all apply. Thunberg’s description clearly pointed 
toa small male of 0. nigritus, Deyr., or O. cingalensis, Parry; but no one thought it 
worth the trouble to clear up the matter. Linné’s description applies so exactly to a 
small amphiodont form of 0. nigritus, Deyr., in the British Museum, that I found 
myself compelled (in December 1882) to recognize this species as the true 0. carinatus. 
In order to verify my determination, I sent sketches of O. siva (= O. carinatus, 
auct.) and O. bellicosus to Prof. Aurivillius, in Stockholm, to be compared with the 
type in the Museum at Upsala, and had the pleasure of receiving an exact drawing of 
the Linnean type, which I reproduce on Pl. XCVII. fig. 8. Prof. Aurivillius also sent 
me the exact measurements, which agreed precisely with the Ceylonese specimen which 
Thad determined as 0. carinatus. Deyrolle had actually employed, without suspecting 
it, the very character (“les mandibules sont fortement carénées supérieurement dans 
leur moitié basilaire,” &c.) which led Linné to apply the name “carinatus” to this 
species. About the same time Parry described his 0. cingalensis from Ceylon, which, 
however, also occurs in India. Although O. cingalensis and O. nigritus look very 
unlike at first sight, both in the shape of their mandibles and prothorax, and in the 
lustre of the elytra, it is scarcely possible to separate them as distinct species. On 
examining a large series Deyrolle found himself obliged to indicate a third species as 
O. intermedius, the chief character of which consists in the tibiz, which are curved, 
instead of being straight, as in the other forms’. This shows that the characters of 
these three supposed species are only individual and not specific. 
I have carefully examined Deyrolle’s type in Herr van Lansberge’s collection, and if 
’ Parry’s description contradicts this, and expressly states:—“‘tibiis anticis curvatis,” &c, But Parry 
describes only the male telodont form, and leaves the other forms and the female unnoticed, 
