BEETLES i59 



Sierra Leone, and the forests of Uganda, where the Goliath is said 

 to be seen fluttering about the tops of trees in search of the 

 flowers on which it feeds. Greatly prized by collectors on account 

 of their unique size and handsome appearance, the Goliath Beetles, 

 when first brought to Europe, fetched very high prices, as much 

 as 50 having been given for a single specimen. Other rare and 

 interesting beetles of great size are the Hercules Beetle (Dynastes 

 Her cities), from Dominica (West Indies), the Elephant Beetle 

 (Megasoma elephas), from Chiriqui, and the Rhinoceros Beetle 

 (Ccelosis bicornis), which is of lesser size, but has the head and 

 thorax adorned with formidable horns. In all cases it is the male 

 beetle which is furnished with these remarkable horns, and they 

 vary considerably in size in different specimens of the same species. 

 Although at first one might imagine that these formidable- 

 looking outgrowths were developed as weapons of offence, 

 the general weight of evidence obtained from careful obser- 

 vation of these remarkable insects in their natural haunts all 

 points to their being simply ornaments, for they are but little 

 used for fighting. The fact that the males are very much larger 

 than the females, and that the remarkable development of the 

 horns is usually confined to them, suggests that some sexual reason 

 exists for these extraordinary projections. The great develop- 

 ment of the mandibles in the male Stag Beetle (Lucanus cervus), 

 the largest of our British beetles, is another interesting example. 

 The female beetles do not possess these large mandibles, and the 

 structures are of ordinary proportions in them, being furnished 

 with teeth which enable them to be used as leaf-cutters. 



The Sexton Beetle (Necrophorus vespilld) is particularly in- 

 teresting on account of its remarkable habits. When the dead 

 body of a small animal or a bird remains on the ground in the 

 open fields or woodland, the Sexton Beetles soon begin to collect 

 around it in numbers, their purpose being not so much to feed upon 

 the dead body as to bury it and deposit their eggs in it, so that a 

 supply of nourishment may be secured for their offspring. They 

 hollow out the ground beneath the body, and make a tolerably 

 deep hole by throwing out the soil with their large legs ; then the 

 animal sinks down, and they cover it up with the earth which 

 has collected around the margin of the pit. By dint of hard, 

 incessant toil the beetles manage to bury a small animal in about 



