COLEOPTERA. 459 
Stag Beetles. These Coleoptera are of great size, and their head 
is armed with enormous robust mandibles, which give them a 

Fig. 442.—Meeacerus chorinzeus. 
ferocious air, which their inoffensive habits do not in any way 
justify. They live in half-rotten trees, whose destruction they 



















Fig. 443.—Megalosoma anubis (male). 
accelerate. Their mandibles, of such prodigious size only in the 
male, are of more inconvenience to them than they are of use, as 
they impede their flight. Their strength enables them to raise 
considerable weights, but they make no other use of them than to 
show their strength, which is enormous. They do not attack other 
insects, and live only on vegetable juices. 
