142 
COLEOPTERA. 
{Lucanus cervus ) is the largest of the British Beetles, 
being nearly three inches long, though there is great 
variation in this respect, some males being not half the 
size of others ; these have comparatively weak jaws. 
The larva lives in rotten wood, such as the oak and the 
willow, and continues in that state for four years or 
more; then spinning a cocoon out of the wood chips 
with which it is surrounded, it enters on its pupal stage. 
The Stag-beetle feeds on the juices of plants, which it 
obtains by bruising, with its strong jaws, the twijs and 
fruit of trees ; it can bite severely, and it is said the jaws 
can retain that power after the head has been severed from 
the body. It is common in some parts of the South of 
England, but does not occur in Shropshire. The common 
Dung-beetle (Geotrupes stercorcirius ), that “ wheels his 
droning flight,” and occasionally comes in contact with 
your face, belongs to the Lamellicornes or beetles with 
leaf-hke antennoe; as does also the Cock-chafer or May- 
bug, and the Hose-beetle ( Cetonia aurata). This latter 
insect, of a bright shining green colour glossed with gold 
above, and polished copper beneath, is not unfrequently 
found in roses; it occurs also in other flowers, as elder 
flowers and thistle flowers (Plate VI., Fig. 3). 
In the sub-section, Priocerata , the antennas are 
generally serrated or toothed like a saw; hence the 
Greek word. Skip-jack beetles, Glow-worms, the long 
Soft-bodied-beetles, popularly called “ soldiers and sailors,” 
belong to this division. The Skip-jacks ( Elateridw ) are 
long narrow hard-bodied beetles, with heads sunk up to 
the eyes in the thorax ; they are well known to all 
school-boys as amongst the greatest “shammers” in the 
insect world. If disturbed on a leaf, immediately Skip- 
