SOME REMARKABLE INSECTS. 



531 



Fig. 



-Stag Beetle. 



shorter one, widen projects from the head, being armed with sev- 

 eral huge teeth. Insects of the male sex only are provided with 

 these immense horns, those of the opposite sex being quite a dif- 

 ferent-looking beetle, be- 

 ing without any trace of 

 these projections. There 

 is a species that inhab- 

 its the southern United 

 States that also belongs to 

 this genus, but it is much 

 smaller, being about two 

 and a half inches long. 



The "stag beetle" of 

 Europe is another strange 



form, the mandibles of the male being greatly enlarged. From 

 the shape and size of the jaws one would suppose that this insect 

 is predaceous, but it is on the contrary a vegetable feeder, using 

 its great jaws to wound the plant, which causes the sap or juices 

 to flow, upon which it feeds. The jaws of the females are in no 

 way conspicuous. There is also a closely allied species found in 

 the United States, but it is a smaller insect. Many other curious 



forms are found among the bee- 

 tles, but they are too many to 

 mention. 



The Lepidoptera, or butter- 

 flies and moths, have a few odd 

 forms among them. One of 

 the most interesting is what is 

 known as the " dead-leaf " but- 

 terfly, found in the Malay Ar- 

 chipelago. The under side of 

 this butterfly greatly resembles 

 a dead or dried leaf, so much so 

 that it is next to an impossibil- 

 ity to detect it when it alights 

 among withered bushes. Wal- 

 lace, in his book The Malay 

 Archipelago, says of this in- 

 sect : " Its upper surface is of a 

 rich purple, variously tinged 

 with ash color, and across the 

 fore wings there is a broad bar of deep orange, so that when on 

 the wing it is very conspicuous. ... I often tried to capture it, 

 without success, for, after flying a short distance, it would enter a 

 bush among dead or dried leaves, and, however carefully I crept 

 up to the spot, I could never discover it until it would suddenly 



Fig. 8.— Dead-leaf Bctterfly. 



