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Photo#67549
Giant stag beetle - Lucanus elaphus - male

Giant stag beetle - Lucanus elaphus - Male
Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
July 18, 2006
This beetle was uncovered by Bruce's Steketee wife, Betsy, while they were cleaning up under some shrubbery. Bruce thought it was unusual enough to warrant a picture or two, and decided to show it to me. The wing tips appeared while he was taking the pictures, but it didn't fly way.
The thing that struck me about this interesting image was the slightly smaller size of head and mandibles, or is it just my imagination? Do compare it with the other Lucanus elaphus photos in the guide.
Anyway, there is indeed great size variation in the mandibles of some Lucanidae, see this PDF
Knell, R.J., Pomfret, J.C. and Tomkins, J.L. (2004) The limits of elaboration: curved allometries reveal the constraints on mandible size in stag beetles. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B (Biological Sciences), Vol. 271, pp 523-528
taken from Rob Knell's research page.