The Stag-beetle, as the male is generally called, is the largest 
and most powerful of British Coleoptera, and is able to pinch 
very severely with its large jaws : it is remarkable, that this 
power is retained after the separation of the head from the 
trunk ; for I remember Mr. J. Sparshall finding a Lucanus 
that a wagon-wheel had passed over, so as to detach the head, 
which he took home with him, and the next morning it had 
sufficient power to pinch his finger. 
The Larvae live in decaying trees, especially the Oak, and 
are well represented by Roesel, together with the eggs and 
pupa (v. 2. tab. 4.). L. Cervas is rather a local insect, and 
seems to be most common in Kent and Essex, but it is some- 
times found even in the streets of London. Its usual haunts 
are lanes and the skirts of woods, on the trunks of trees, and 
it is most abundant the beginning of July. Mr. Dale informs 
me that 44 at Bryanston, near Blandford, they were called 
Branston Bucks in the time of Ray, and are still known by 
that name: they have been taken near Shrewsbury; on the 
banks of the Dart, near Ashburton, Devon ; at Swansea ; in 
the New Forest; and near Wimborne; on Parley Heath, 
Dorset; and Brightwell, Berks; from the 6th of June to the 
18th of August.” The males fly about sunset, and have a sin- 
gular appearance on the wing : the bodies seem to droop, and 
the mandibles being stretched out like a neck, give them, at a 
distance, the appearance of a duck in miniature. They are 
supposed to subsist by lapping the sap that exudes from the 
wounds in trees that they make with their mandibles. 
Dr. Leach, many years back, having ascertained by dissec- 
tion that L. Cervus was invariably of the male and L. inermis 
of the female sex, he had no longer any doubt of their being 
one species. I have since taken them paired in the New Fo- 
rest and in Suffolk ; and the difference in the structure of the 
anterior tibiae, which are much shorter and more dilated in 
L . inermis , appears to me to be a certain sexual distinction. 
L. Dorcas Fanz. (capreolus Fab.) is a smaller insect, and 
principally distinguished by the head being narrower than the 
thorax ; but as there are complete series to L. Cervus , it can 
only be considered as a variety. 
L. grandis Haw ., figured apparently by Roesel, I am dis- 
posed to think is a distinct species. I have never seen a British 
specimen, but all the foreign ones that have come under my 
observation are distinguished, not only by the great develop- 
ment of the head and trophi, but the projecting angles of the 
labrum form a straight line, and not a concave one, as in 
L. Cervus . 
The insect represented flying is the male, and that walking 
the female; and the reader will find some amusing observa- 
tions on the habits of the Stag-beetle, by Mr. Davis and Mr. 
Waterhouse, in the Entomological Magazine. 
The Plant is Gnaphalium germanicum (Common Cudweed). 
