LUCANIDiE. 
243 
is in some species distinctly roughened and knobbed above; the charac¬ 
teristic antennse are folded back under the head or are extended in front; 
the large toothed mandibles meet just beyond 
the edge of the clypeus. The legs are strong, 
the fore tibiae broadened and suited to digging, 
the posterior legs more slender, the tibiae with 
long brown hairs. A feature of these, as of 
other lamellicorn beetles which live in decaying 
vegetable matter, is the presence of abundant 
fine brown hair on the legs and lower surface of 
the body. 
The larvae of insects of this family are found 
in decaying wood in forests and are large fleshy 
insects, similar in form to other Scarabaeid 
larvae, with the first pair of legs reduced in size 
and functioning as stridulating organs. The anal opening is transverse, 
the upper lip indented longitudinally. The imago lives also in decay¬ 
ing wood, under the bark of trees and among decaying vegetation. 
They are most abundant in forests and not found in the cultivated 
plains, A caustic fluid is secreted by some species, serving probably 
as a protection. They are almost wholly forest species and may be 
met with rarely in moister cultivated areas of East and South India, 
not in the dry plains. 
Stoliczka remarks that Passalidce are met with only in parts of 
India with a Malayan fauna ; he lists 23 Indian species, from South India, 
Eastern Bengal, Burmah, etc. Basilianus is the commonest genus. (J. 
Asiat. Soc. Bengal, XXII, p. 149.) 
Lucanid^.— Stag Beetles. 
The antennae do not curl, the club being indistinct; the elytra cover 
the abdomen, the labrum is small and indistinct. 
Beetles of large size in which the simplest distinguishing character 
is the large mandibles of the males, which project forward as two large 
and formidable jaws. These are, in the female, of moderate size and not 
conspicuous. None are small insects, the length varying from 14 inches 
to over four. The colouring is brown and black, as a rule, sombre and 
dull as in other beetles of similar habits. 
Fig. 138.— Basilianus 
STOLICZKA. 
