440 



THE INSECT WORLD. 



Fig. 425. 

 Cetonia argentea. 



ness, and which very easily comes off. The head of these enormous 

 Coleoptera is generally cut or scooped out, and is adorned sometimes 

 with one or two horns. Their legs, strong and robust, are armed 

 with spurs, and sometimes present on their 

 exterior sharp indentations, which give to these 

 insects a crabbed physiognomy, which their in- 

 offensive habits are far from justifying. All these 

 horns, and all these teeth, which look so terrible, 

 are nothing, in fact, with a great number of these 

 insects, but simple ornaments. They compose 

 the picturesque uniform of the males. They 

 are equivalent to the bear-skin caps, the flaming 

 helmets, and the bullion-fringed epaulettes of 

 our soldiers. The dress of the female Goliathus 

 is much more modest, as is becoming to the 

 sex. We here represent the Goliathus Derbyana 

 (Fig. 426) and Polyphemus (Fig. 427). 



The Goliaths were formerly excessively rare 

 in collections, and of a price inaccessible to 

 ordinary amateurs — one single specimen costing 

 as much as twenty pounds. But for some time the Goliaths of 

 the coast of Guinea and of Cape Palmas have been sold to European 

 amateurs at a modest price, thanks to those travellers who, after the 

 example of Dr. Savage, have collected them by hundreds in the coun- 

 tries which produce them. These enormous Coleoptera are seen on the 

 coast of Guinea fluttering about at the top of trees, the flowers ot 

 which they are seeking after. To catch them the trees are felled or else 

 they are shot at with a gun loaded with sand, as is also done for the 

 humming-birds. The species which Dr. Savage made common is the 

 Goliathus cacicus^ of Avhich we represent the male and female (Figs. 

 428, 429). It is met with on the coast of Guinea. The Goliathus 

 Dricryi (Fig. 430) inhabits Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Guinea. 

 The numerous expeditions which are at the present moment being 

 made into the interior of Africa will not fail to increase the number 

 of species of these splendid insects, which are the ornament of all 

 collections. 



The group of the Trichiadce, which has in Great Britain and in 

 France a few representatives, is very nearly the same as that of the 

 CetotiiadcB. The Trichiadce have the elytra shorter, the abdomen 

 bigger, and the legs more slender. The Trichius fasciatus, which is 

 black, and covered with an ashy down, with the elytra yellow, and with 

 three black bands, is to be met with in quantities on the garden rose- 



