138 



INSKCTS ABROAD. 



been found dead, floating in the Gaboon River, opposite 

 Prince's Island. Nothing was known of its habits until lately, 

 when travellers have succeeded in capturiDg a tolerable number 

 of specimens, one of which, now in the British Museum, is 

 singularly valuable. That the Cetonia larvae enclose themselves 

 when full fed in earthen or wooden cocoons is well known, and 

 naturalists were therefore anxious to know what kind of a 

 cocoon could be constructed by the enormous Goliath Beetle. 

 The question has been set at rest by the discovery of a cocoon 

 of the present species, which is now in the nest-room of the 

 British Museum. 



It is oval, about as large as a swan's egg, and has wonderfully 

 thin walls. The most remarkable point about it is the thick 

 belt with which it is encircled, probably for the purpose of 



h'n;. f>r>. - Cocoons ofScarabseusand Goliath. 



strengthening it. How this belt was made is to me a mystery. 

 A larva which inhabits a cocoon must of necessity make that 

 cocoon from the inside, and bow it is possible for a creature 

 which builds its cocoon around itself to form an external 

 strengthening belt is a riddle that has not yet been explained. 

 The fact is patent — the means are unknown; and when those 

 means are discovered, we shall have solved a very interesting 

 problem in Natural History. 



The above illustration of this invaluable specimen is taken 

 from my "Homes without Hands," published by Messrs. 

 Longman and Co. As, on account of the size of the cocoon, it 



