208 



INTRODUCTION'. 



as long as the rest of the body ; they are not, however, very 

 powerful, and their use is not quite apparent ; the female of the 

 common British Stag-Beetle (Lucanus cervus, L.) for instance can, 

 with two very short pincer-like nippers, give a much more severe 

 bite than the male with his enormous mandibles, and we cannot 

 discover any definite purpose, offensive, defensive, or economic, 

 for the development of the latter. 



Fig. 93. — Hemisodorcus nepalensis (natural size). 



The larvse are large fleshy maggots, and the segments are not 

 raised in three folds as is the case with the majority of the 

 ScARABiEiDiE ; the antennae are short and the legs moderate. 

 They feed in wood and apparently take some years to come to 

 maturity. 



About 600 species have been described ; a considerable number 

 are found in the Indo-Malayan region, and the Indian region is 

 fairly rich both in genera and species, nearly half the species of 

 Lucanas being found there. 



