REMARKS UPON SCARAB^US GOL1ATU3 AND OTHER AFRICAN 

 BEETLES ALLIED TO IT. BY THADDEUS WILLIAM HARRIS. 



THERE has recently been added to the Cabinet of the Society 

 a gigantic beetle, belonging to the genus GOLIATH of De La- 

 marck. The enormous size 4 extreme rarity, and great nominal 

 value of the African insects of this genus, render the acquisition 

 of this specimen, which is in perfect preservation, an occurrence 

 of signal good fortune, and affords a suitable occasion for some 

 remarks upon the species. 



The earliest account of them on record is contained in Dru 

 Drury >s* " Illustrations of Natural History," a work in three 

 volumes, quarto, published at London in 1770, 1773, and 1782, 

 and illustrated by figures of exotic insects, drawn and engraved 

 by the celebrated entomologist Moses Harris. Mr. Drury 

 seems, for many years, to have been the only possessor of one 

 of these beetles, which he states was brought from Africa, 

 where it was found dead and floating in the river Gaboon, oppo- 

 site to Prince's island, near the equinoctial line. It is said that 

 this specimen cost Mr. Drury the sum of ten pounds sterling, a 

 high price as compared with the present diminished value of 

 money. This beetle was described and figured, in 1770, in the 

 first volume of Drury ? s Illustrations, page 67, plate 31. From 

 this description and figure Linnseus drew up a specific character 

 of it, and inserted it, in 1771, in his "Mantissa altera," under 

 the name of Scarabceus Goliatus, a name which was subse- 

 quently adopted by Drury, in the index appended to the second 

 volume of the Illustrations. Mr. Westwood, the editor of a 



* Mr. Drury was a London goldsmith and jeweller, who devoted his leisure to the study 

 of natural history, and particularly to that of entomology, and was a fellow of the Linnaean 

 Society. His collection, in the increase of which he spared neither expense nor trouble, 

 contained eleven thousand insects, which after his decease, were sold by public auction. 

 Mr. Diury was of a very ancient family, and it is believed was lineally descended from i*ir 

 Dru Drury , of Q,ueen Elizabeth's time. He died on the 15th of January, 1804, at the ad- 

 vanced age of eighty. His son succeeded to his business, and his daughter was married to 

 a Mr. Andre, a merchant in London, and unele to the unfortunate and lamented Major 

 Andre. See Gentleman's Magazine for 1804, part 1, p. 86. 



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