CERAMBYX. J? 1 
Madam Merian in her celebrated work on the 
Insects of Surinam.^ 
The Cerambyx Gigas is a species which seems 
to have been first described in tlie work of Mr. 
Drury on exotic insects: it is, perhaps, the most 
gigantic of the whole genus, measuring between 
six and seven inches in length: the wing-shells 
are of a dark brown colour, and every other part 
of the insect black. 
The Ceromhyx damicornis is one of the larger 
species, though very considerably inferior to the 
two preceding : it is of a dark chesnut-colour, 
with very long, curved jaws, spined or serrated 
on the inner side, as in those of the Stag-Beetle 
or Lucanus Cervus, to which this insect bears a 
considerable general resemblance. It is a native 
of many parts of America and the AVest-Indian 
islands, where its larva, like that of the Palm Cur- 
culio, is in great request as an article of food, 
being considered by the transatlantic epicures as 
one of the greatest delicacies in the AVestern 
AV^orld. ATe are informed by authors of the high- 
est respectability, that some people of fortune in 
the AVest-Indies keep Negroes for the sole pur- 
pose of going into the woods in quest of these 
admired larvae, and scooping them out of the trees 
in which they reside. Their general length is 
about three inches and a half, and their thickness 
that of the little finger. Dr. Browne, in his 
History of Jamaica, informs us that they are 
chiefly found in the Plumb and Silk-Cotton-Trees. 
They are commonly called by the name of Ma- 
