  GOLIATHUS GIGANTEUS.Plate XXXI. fig. 1. Order: Coleoptera. Section: Lamellicornes. Family: CetoniidÆ. Genus. Goliathus, De Lamarck. Cetonia, Oliv. ScarabÆus, Linn, &c. Goliathus Giganteus. Thorace piceo, nudo, holosericeo-albo lineato; elytris glaucis, clypeo porrecto bifido. (Long. Corp. 4 unc. 3 lin.) Syn. Goliathus Giganteus, Kirby in Introd. to Ent. vol. 3. p. 33. v. 4. p. 493. ScarabÆus Goliathus, Linn. Mant. 5. 30. Cetonia Goliata, Fabr. Ent. Syst. 1. 2. p. 124. 1. Cetonia Goliathus, Olivier, 1. No. 6. pl. 5. f. 33. Goliathus Magnus, Naturalist's Library, Beetles, pl. 16. Goliathus Africanus, De Lamarck Anim. sans Vert. Habitat: Western Africa, near the Equinoctial line. Head, above, flesh-coloured; beneath, black; about three-fourths of an inch in length, terminating in two blunt, obtuse, and irregular horns. Two other thick and jagged horns also arise from its sides, much shorter than the former. Its breadth at the base is half an inch; having a small projecting ridge running along the middle, from thence to the extremity, at the base of the horns. Thorax an inch and a half long, being principally black; but along the sides is flesh-coloured. It has also five narrow and irregular waved lines of a flesh colour running from the anterior to the posterior edges; one of which, being in the middle of the thorax, is narrower than the rest; the two next this terminate at the posterior edges in a fine rose colour; these next the lateral edges are broadest, having likewise a patch of rose colour next the wing-cases. About the middle of the thorax, these external lines separate and divide, continuing so almost to the anterior edges, where they again unite. The under part of the thorax is flesh colour; but in the middle of a yellowish brown. The scutellum is triangular and black; with a clear white central oblong mark truncated in front. Elytra beautiful chocolate-coloured, and This magnificent insect may be regarded as one of the rarest species figured in these Illustrations. Drury states, that the specimen here represented was brought from Africa by Mr. Ogilvie, surgeon of His Majesty's ship the Renown, being found floating, dead, in the river Gaboon, opposite Prince's Island, near the equinoctial line. Nearly seventy years have elapsed since the insect was first described, and yet the insect remains, as far as my knowledge extends, unique.[23] It would appear that the specimen either belonged to or passed into the hands of Dr. Hunter after the death of Mr. Drury, for Fabricius describes the species with a citation of the museum of Dr. Hunter alone; and Olivier's figure was taken from the specimen whilst it was in that gentleman's possession. After his decease it passed, with his collection, by bequest, into the possession of the University of Glasgow, where it now forms one of the most interesting objects in the Hunterian Museum. Joseph Hooker, Esq., son of Sir W. Hooker, the highly distinguished botanist of Glasgow, tells me that the individual in question was picked up by a sailor in the river above mentioned, and that it is stated in the MSS. of Dr. Hunter that it cost Mr. Drury £10. In the Catalogue of the Insects of Mr. Drury, which were sold by auction at the Natural History Sale Rooms in King Street, Covent Garden (now occupied by Mr. J. C. Stevens), on the 23rd of May, 1805, and two following days, the 95th lot is described as "ScarabÆus Goliathus, var." Whence it would appear that the insect here figured was not in the possession of Mr. Drury at his decease, and that he only possessed the insect figured in the 3rd volume of these Illustrations, pl. 40, which evidently on the authority of Fabricius he had regarded as a variety only of the specimen here figured. The genus Goliathus is exceedingly interesting, not only on account of the gigantic size and singular form of the species of which it is composed, but also from the geographical range of the group. Mr. Kirby observes upon this subject, "Mr. W. S. MacLeay has remarked to me that Goliathus Lam. appears to belt the globe, but not under one form. The types of the genus are the vast African Goliaths (G. giganteus, &c.), which, as well as G. Polyphemus, and another brought from Java by Dr. Horsfield, have, like Cetonia, the scapulars interposed between the posterior angles of the prothorax and the shoulders of the elytra, while the South American species (G. micans,[24] &c.) have not this projection of the scapulars; in this resembling Trichius; Mr. MacLeay further observes, that the Since the publication of this passage, the genus Goliathus has undergone a considerable revision; the South American species, Cetonia Ynca, Fabr. barbicornis, MacLeay, &c., have been separated from the genus by Saint Fargeau and Serville in the EncyclopÉdie MÉthodique, under the generic name of Ynca, and the Javanese species above noticed (Gol. Rhinophyllus[25] Wiedemann) is stated by Latreille in the RÈgne Animal, 2nd edition, not to belong to the genus Goliathus, but to that of Cetonia. The genus is thus restricted to the African species,[26] with the exception of a Mexican insect which Dejean has named Goliathus Hoffneri. The genus Ynca may thus be regarded rather as a geographical subgenus, or type of form belonging to and representing the African species of Goliathus. |
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