208 INSECTS ABROAD. 



Another example of these lovely Beetles is sliown in the 

 illustration below. Its name is Rhigus Sclmppdlii, and, like the 

 Diamond Beetle, it is a native of Brazil. 



It is much more knobby — if I may use the term— than the 

 preceding insects. On the thorax there are two rows of knobs, 

 and there are eight much larger knobs on the elytra ; namely, 

 two rows of three knobs in each row, and one upon each 

 shoulder. The ground colour of the elytra is green, but the 

 knobs are beautiful golden yellow, both colours being produced 



by scales somewhat similar to 



-^^^^^^^^^^ tliose which have been described 



"'^^^fc^-^^i^^*"^^''^™^ when treating of the Diamond 



_.i5^;^^^^^^^^*w^ Beetle. There is a distinct gold 



-y^^^^^'^^^Q:- % ^ ""- edging to the elytra, which are 



^■- -^ r^^^^^T*"^ '% t punctated in parallel lines. The 



-"^-^"-^-C--^ -^ - -^ggj^ ^^g green, and the thighs, 



Fio. 100 -Rhigus Schuppellii. pJr>ppinllv thodP nf thp firsit fivp 



(Green, with golden projections.) especially lUOSC 01 IHQ nrsi n\e, 



are large and powerful. 

 This is an exceedingly variable insect in point of colour and 

 in the comparative size of the knobs. There is in the British 

 Museum a curious variety of this Beetle, in which the whole 

 of the colour is pale yellow, and the knobs scarcely project at 

 all from the surface. The reason for the generic name BMgus 

 I cannot see, inasmuch as the word is Greek, signifying "a 

 shivering from cold," a circumstance which is scarcely likely 

 to happen in tropical America, and which seems singularly 

 inappropriate to a Beetle. Perhaps the traveller who captured 

 and named the first specimen took an ague, and commemorated 

 it by the name which he gave to the Beetle. 



The Beetle which is represented on the next page belongs to 

 the family of the Brachycerida?. This word signifies "short- 

 horned," and is given to the insects because their antennpe are 

 stout and extremely short in proportion to the size of the body. 

 There is plenty of material in them to make long and slender 

 antenn£e like those of the Xenocerus, but it is utilized in widtli 

 instead of length, the antennae being small at the base, and 

 gradually increasing in diameter to the tip, which is broad and 

 blunt. Tlie insects belonging to this family are mostly African, 

 though some are found on the shores of the Mediterranean. 



