Harris's Description of an Africa7i Beetle. 397 



ART. XXXTI. — DESCRIPTION OF AN AFRICAN BEETLE, ALLIED 

 TO SCARAB-EUS POLYPHEMUS, WITH REMARKS UPON SOME 

 OTHER INSECTS OP THE SA^IE GROUP. Bv Thaddeus Wxlliaai 

 Harris. 



In the year 1781, the Danish naturalist Fabricius pubHshed 

 the first description of a large African beetle, preserved in the 

 cabinet of Sir Joseph Banks in London, and gave it the name 

 of Scarahceus Polyphemus. Olivier afterwards found this in- 

 sect in the same collection, and described and figured it, as a 

 species of Cetonia, in 1789. The specimen was a male : it 

 remained without a mate, and, according to Mr. Hope* and 

 Mr. Macleay.f it was the only one known for many years, 

 and was long considered as '' the chief ornament of the Bank- 

 sian cabinet," from which, however, it disappeared a few 

 years ago. In the " Monographic des Cetoines" of Gory and 

 Percheron, which was published at Paris in 1833, there ap- 

 peared a description and figure of a male of the same species, 

 which these authors state was contained in their own cabinet ; 

 but we have no authentic account of any other specimen in 

 European collections. 



Dr. Thomas S. Savage has lately brought from Cape Pal- 

 mas, in Western Africa, several males and the female of this 

 rare and noble species, together with both sexes of another, 

 which is scarcely inferior to it in size and beauty, and, hav- 

 ing put them into my hands, has requested me to describe 

 them. 



As we are indebted to Dr. Savage for the first discovery of 

 the female of the Polyphemus, which was before unknown, it 

 may be proper to offer for publication a description of this 

 insect, with that of the new species which now enriches his 

 admirable collection. 



The Boston Society of Natural History has received from 

 the same gentleman a large number of the fine insects of 

 Western Africa, among which are males and females of Scara- 



* Coleopterisl's Manual, p. 60. 



t Illustrations of the Annulosa of South Africa, p. 33, 



