THE HEKCULES BEETLE. l?l 



grey green, much wrinkled, and have a few black spots scat- 

 tered over them. It has very large and powerful wings, which 

 are needed in order to hear so bulky an insect through the air. 



Some persons state that Dynastcs Hercules saws off the 

 branches of trees by grasping them between the head and the 

 thorax and flying round and round the branch, the opposed pro- 

 jections acting like the teeth of a saw. The same story is 

 narrated of other Beetles, but there is no direct evidence on the 

 subject. It is certain, however, that the insect lives on the 

 mucilaginous juices of certain plants, but whether it wounds 

 those plants in order to obtain the juice is very doubtful. 



According to Lacordaire, the habits of the various Dynastidge 

 are very similar. During the daytime they are seldom seen, 

 having a habit of concealing themselves in dark hiding-places, 

 or at most crawling in the recesses of v/oods. By night they 

 come from their concealment and fly about the trees, in search, 

 as M. Lacordaire thinks, of food, but, as jNIr. Westwood more 

 justly observes, of their mates. It is rather remarkable that, just 

 as British liose Beetles are sometimes found in ants' nests, some 

 of their gigantic exotic relatives are found in similar places. 



On the same plate. Fig. 3, may be 'seen an allied insect named 

 Golofa hasfatus. The Beetles belonging to this genus have been 

 separated i'rom the genus Dynastes on account of the formation 

 of the tarsi. In the males the tarsi of the fli'st pair of legs are 

 very long, and so formed that they must always be curved when 

 extended. The head and thorax are both armed with horns 

 more or less upright. 



The present insect, which is a native of Mexico, has both 

 these horns very curiously developed. That on the thorax rises 

 ([uite upright, and is slightly bent foi'ward at the tij-), which is 

 diamond-shaped, or like the head of a spear. It is for this 

 leason that the species has been given the name of liastatus. 



The head horn, though curving slightly upwards, is directed 

 forwards, and is most curiously formed. The projecting portion 

 is deeply grooved along the middle, and its edges are cut into a 

 series of bold teeth, from among which project a number of stiff, 

 liristle-likc hairs. Its length is rather more than three-quarters 

 of an inch. Tlie colour of the thorax is dark chestnut, except 

 the horn, whicli is black and very shining, and tlic greater part 

 K 2 



