The Etymology of the Beetle Name Lucanus Linnaeus (Coleoptera: Lucanidae)

[excerpt] The handsome European stage beetle Llrcunus cervus Linnaeus is so magnificent in its outlines as to have won the attention of no less a master of drawing than Albrecht Diirer. The spectacular antler-like porrect mandibles of the male assure this creature an important place in any picture book of remarkable insects, and have awakened the linguistic imagination for metaphor. In many of the European languages it is called the flying stag or stag beetle: French cerf vulante. German Hirschkafer, Italian cervo vulante, Dutch uliegende hert, Renaissance Latin scurabelaphus (from Latin scarrcbaeus and Greek elaphus "stag").? This designation can be traced as least as far back as the middle of the 16th century and perhaps further (Imperato 1672:694 [first edition 1559]; Cardanus 1557:301; Lonicerus 1531 [not seen]).