  GOLIATHUS DRURII.Plate XL. Order: Coleoptera. Section: Lamellicornes. Family: CetoniidÆ. Genus. Goliathus, De Lamarck. Cetonia, Fabr. ScarabÆus, Linn. Drury, &c. Goliathus Drurii. Albidus, thorace lineis sex et disco elytrorum irregulariter nigris, pedibus Æneis, capite porrecto bifido. (Long. Corp. 4 unc.) Syn. Goliathus Maximus var. Drury, App. vol. 3. Fabr. Syst. Eleuth. 2. 135. Cetonia Goliata, Oliv. Ent. 1. 6. p. 71. t. 9. f. 33. c. Habitat: Sierra Leone, Africa (Drury). Head cream-coloured at top, and black underneath, being full three-fourths of an inch in length, from the neck to the extremity of the two horns which issue from the fore part of it, the sides of which are furnished with two other thick horns which are shorter than the former. Eyes black, and situated so as to discern above and beneath. AntennÆ black. Thorax an inch and a half long, cream-coloured, having a thin, sharp, black edge all round; on the top are six longitudinal black streaks differently shaped, separated by cream-coloured lines, the middle ones being narrowest, on each side of which near the lateral edge is a small single black spot; the under part of the thorax is cream-coloured. Scutellum of a longish triangular shape, and cream-coloured. Elytra cream-coloured, with a broad black streak like velvet, about a third of their breadth, running near the lateral edges from the shoulders to the tips. On each side the scutellum is a small black oblong spot, at about one-third of an inch from it. Legs dark green, finely polished. The hairs on the middle and hind thighs and tibiÆ dark orange. Abdomen dark green. Abdominal scales [posterior coxÆ] the same; on which, close to the joints of the hinder thighs, are two small cream-coloured spots. Sternum long, and of a dark green colour. I have ventured, on the authority of several distinguished entomologists, to give this insect as a species distinct from Goliathus maximus, figured in the first volume of these Illustrations, Pl. 31. It is true, indeed, that both are from the tropical districts of the western coast of Africa, and that both exhibit the same general structure and form of the horns, (the variations of which constitute the chief specific differences in these cornuted species). Drury evidently at first regarded it as specifically distinct, for he says, in his observation upon it, "This insect is of the same genus with that described in Vol. 1. Pl. XXXI., but I judge it to be a different species," although in the synoptical appendix to the volume he calls it "a variety of Goliathus," the markings are very different, as may be seen by comparing the two figures; but it might be considered that the specimen represented in the first volume was a rubbed individual of that here figured; this, however, is evidently not the case, because in both descriptions Drury expressly describes the dark part of the elytra as resembling velvet, which could not be the case if the specimen was |
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