COLEOPTERA. 393 



the first of which is usually much the longest. The mandibles are 

 always corneous, most commonly salient and larger, and even very 

 different in the males. The maxillae, in most of them, are termi- 

 nated by a narrow, elongated and silky lobe; those of others are 

 entirely corneous and dentated. The ligula in the greater number 

 is formed of two small silky pencils projecting more or less beyond 

 an almost semi-circular or square mentum. The anterior legs are 

 most frequently elongated, and their tibiae dentated along the whole 

 of the outer side. The tarsi terr)iinate by two equal and simple 

 hooks with a little appendage terminated by two setae between them. 

 The elytra cover the whole of the abdomen above. 



We will divide it into two sections, corresponding to the genera 

 Lucanus and Passalus of Olivier. 



In the first we find the antennae strongly geniculate, glabrous or 

 but slightly pilose; the labrum very small or confounded with the 

 epistoma; maxillae terminated by a membranous or coriaceous, very 

 silky, pencilliform lobe without teeth, or at most with but one; and 

 a ligula either entirely concealed or incorporated with the mentum, 

 or divided into two narrow, elongated, silky lobes extending more 

 or less beyond the mentum. The scutellum is situated between the 

 elytra. 



The first section will form the genus 



Lire ANUS. 



The larva of the L. cervus, which inhabits the interior of the Oak for seve- 

 ral years previous to its final metamorphosis, is considered as the Cossus of 

 the Romans, or that verminiform animal which they regarded as a delicious 

 article of food. 



L. cervus, L. (The Stag-Beetle). The male two inches in length, and 

 larger than the female; black, with brown elytra; head wider than the body; 

 mandibles very large, arcuated, with three very stout teeth; two of which 

 are at the end and diverge, the other is in the inner side, all furnished with 

 small ones. The female, called Boe, has a narrower head and much smaller 

 mandibles. It flies at night in the heat of summer. Its size and mandibles 

 vary. It is to one of these varieties that we must refer the Lucane chevre of 

 Olivier, or the L. capreolus of Fabricius. The Lucanus, so called by Lin- 

 nxus, is a species from North America, and very distinct from the preceding. 



The subgenera are Sinodendron, JEsalus, Lamprima, &c. 



The Lucanides of our second section have their antennae simply 

 arcuated, or but slightly geniculate and pilose; the labrum always 

 2 Z 



