CIX 
and is replaced by a bellicose facies which could scarcely be 
surpassed. , 
The individual dissected had doubtless beën picked up dead, 
was not aged, that is to say the sculpture and the angles DL 
legs were not worn or scratched ; the points of the mandibles and 
the genal processes were, however,some what worn down,and there 
existed on one side of the membranous cephaälothoracic space a 
large wound, which had evidently been inflicted during life, for 
the wound in the membrane and in the muscular tissue surroun- 
ding it was infiltrated with the black granular substance which 
many entomologists must have noticed as occurring about wounds 
on insects, and which is no doubt similar to the exudations of 
serum and blood that take place in .the wounds of vertebrate 
animals. 
The muscular power of Fypocephalus armatus is no ou pro- 
digious; the enormous thorax of this individualwas occupied by 
muscles of huge size, the pair of muscles by which the head is 
inflexed being specially enormous. 
The dissection of this individual has convinced me‘that the pecu- 
liarities of this wonderful insect, as they are seen in the male, are 
directed to fitting the nrales for carrying on combats with one 
another of an exterminatory nature, and of a peculiar character, 
the point armed at in the attack being the large membranous 
cephalothoracic space I have above described. 
This is the only vulnerable part of the body in the male, and it 
is to be borne in mind that it is completely protected when the 
head is closely contracted.] suppose that two of these males where 
fighting strive to seize and overturn one another; when one is 
reversed it will seek to inflex and contract its head, and if it can 
_ succeed in doing so and retain the contracted position by aid of 
the enormous muscles it possesses, it is probable that all the efforts 
ofits adversary to complete its victory by wounding and des- 
troying the overturned individual will be fruitless. On the other 
hand, no doubt the successful individual will seek to prevent its 
more feeble adversary from contracting its head, and ifit can do 
this, or if it can pullit open when contracted, it will be, able to 
inflict fatal wounds with. its mandibles or genal processes, on the 
large, exposed, soft cephalothoracic space. I suppose the individual 
sent me by M. de Lacerda for dissection had been killed in this 
manner, or rather that it had died some time after receiving the 
wound I have mentioned. 
Perhaps it may be permitted to, record some other points obser- 
ved while making this dissection and,speak briefly as to the posi- 
tion the insect should occupy in classification. 
