CERAMBYX. 7 1 



Madam Merian in her celebrated work on the 

 Insects of Surinam. 



The Cerambyx Gigas is a species which seems 

 to have been first described in the work of Mr. 

 Drury on exotic insects: it is, perhaps, the most 

 gigantic of the whole genus, measuring between 

 six and seven inches in length: the wing-shells 

 are of a dark brown colour, and every other part 

 of the insect black. 



The Cerambyx damicornis is one of the larger 

 species, though very considerably inferior to the 

 two preceding : it is of a dark chesnut-colour, 

 with very long, curved jaws, spined or serrated 

 on the inner side, as in those of the Stag-Beetle 

 or Lucanus Cervus, to which this insect bears a 

 considerable general resemblance. It is a native 

 of many parts of America and the West-Indian 

 islands, where its larva, like that of the Palm Cur- 

 culio, is in great request as an article of food, 

 being considered by the transatlantic epicures as 

 one of the greatest delicacies in the Western 

 World. We are informed by authors of the high- 

 est respectability, that some people of fortune in 

 the West-Indies keep Negroes for the sole pur- 

 pose of going into the woods in quest of these 

 admired larvae, and scooping them out of the trees 

 in which they reside. Their general length is 

 about three inches and a half, and their thickness 

 that of the little finger. Dr. Browne, in his 

 History of Jamaica, informs us that they are 

 chiefly found in the Plumb and Silk-Cotton-Trees. 

 They are commonly called by the name of Ma- 



