THE IX SECT WORLD. 



197 



Fig 



popular interest. They differ from the ScarabcBidcB in that the 

 leaves of the club are separated and cannot be made to form 

 a solid club or mass. 



Our most common "stag-beetle" is the Lucanns davia, in 

 which the mandibles of the male are much enlarged and sickle- 

 shaped : whence the common term " pinching-bug." It occurs 

 throughout the Middle and Central States, becoming more rare 

 to the North and losing interest in the South in favor of its more 

 prominent relative, the L. elaphics, which in the male has man- 

 dibles almost as long as itself, and branched like antlers, yielding 

 in this respect, however, to its European congener, the L. cervus, 

 or original "stag-beetle." Quite a different-looking creature is 

 the Passahis cornuhcs, perhaps the most common of all the 

 members of this family, though not always readily found. It is 

 coal-black, shining, with a large square thorax and a small head 

 armed with a short curved horn. All 

 these species and all the lar\'ae of this 

 family feed in decaying wood, and 

 preferably in stumps or in roots. Thus 

 their function is rather as scavengers, 

 and never as destroyers of vegetable 

 life. The lar\-a of the Passahis cornutus 

 is interesting, because it has four legs 

 only, one pair being entirely aborted. 



In the family Scai-abcsidcB the leaves 

 of the antennal club are always close 

 together when at rest, but can be spread 

 out fan-like at the will of the insect, 

 exposing the numerous sensory pittings 

 with which they are closely set. The 

 legs are always fitted for digging. 



At the beginning we meet a series of 

 species that are scavengers, living on 

 decaying or excrementitious matter. Some of them are large 

 and have the curious habit of making balls of dung, in each of 

 which an egg is laid. The balls are then buried beneath the 

 surface, and each furnishes sufficient food to bring one larva to 

 maturity. When the ball is made up on a road or other hard 

 surface, the insects roll it to some more suitable place, and have 



Passahis 



cornuhis and 

 pupa. 



