Museum-style entomological glass box (21x30x5cm), featuring an old hardwood masquette (small passport mask), natural brown in color, with prominent features, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Belgian Congo) of an unspecified ethnic group. The mask is surrounded on either side by eight large beetles of the Lucanidae (kite) family, Prosopocoelus giraffa, four males above and four females below. As with all Lucanidae, the males are characterized by their very long (especially in the giraffa species) antler-like mandibles, which they use to fight each other when in search of females. The females have only very small mandibles, which can nevertheless pinch very hard, and which they use to bore galleries in the rotting wood of large fallen trunks, where they lay their eggs.
The "museum" box is in perfect condition, and the insects excellently preserved.