A color photo-catalogue of all known African species and subspecies of Stag Beetles. This book treats the whole African continent, including Madagascar and small islands: 125 species of 16 genera from tropical Africa and North Africa are listed and figured. For all species and subspecies the detailed distribution is given, and for some species photos of habitats and living specimens in the field are included. In addition, portraits and short biographical information about entomologists and explorers who worked particularly with the African lucanid fauna are also given. The species richness of the various countries and the perspectives for further research are discussed. For each African country all the known species are listed, together with the number of endemisms. Author, year, publication, synonyms, size, type locality, abundance, remarks, and distribution are given for every taxon.The label data of all the illustrated specimens are cited, as well as the acronym of the collection where the specimen is held. Many of  the type specimens from the most important entomological museums (Berlin, Pretoria, Eberswalde, London, Paris, Cape Town,  Munich, Dresden, Tervuren, Vienna, Florence, Genova and Basel) are illustrated. A large amount of bibliographical references are given at the end.