3(3 



ON THE CETONIIDiE OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



terminal lobe of the maxilla armed on the inside at the middle with a corneous tooth. We 

 thus have a character which clearly proves that these gigantic insects are aberrant, and that 

 they pass off by the affinity of transultation to the genus Macrominus, of which the maxilla, 

 internally toothed, is an essential character. The gigantic GoUathi are, at first sight, easily 

 distinguished from the Hopfnerii by their back being convex, and they are known from that 

 other section of the sub-genus which MM. Lepelletier and Serville have called Inca by the 

 large and conspicuous axillary pieces or epimera of the mesothorax, (See Zool. Journal, vol. v. 

 p. 165.) which intervene between, what is, to speak accurately, the prothorax and the 

 shoulders of the elytra. The GoUathi Gigantei have a strong plantula* between the ungues 

 of the anterior feet, and probably it exists in all' the feet. Unfortunately, my specimens, 

 although good, are not in this respect thoroughly uninjured, and thus I am also ignorant 

 whether the plantulse be attended or not with pseudonychia. The feet are all black, but the 

 four posterior tibiaj are along the inside fringed with a close fulvous down, while the males 

 have the anterior tibiaj thus Hned only half way. The abdomen beneath is more or less 

 covered with the same close down. The mesosternum is advanced, broad and pointed, some- 

 thing like a gothic arch. It is difficult to imagine how insects so large and weighty, can 

 possibly live on flowers ; at least the corolla, which would receive in its bosom any species of 

 this section, must necessarily approach in size to that of the Rafflesia. These gigantic GoUathi 

 may possibly live therefore on the juices that exude from the wounds of trees. One thing is 

 sure, namely, that the penicilliform structure of the back of the terminal process of their 

 maxillae proves that they do Hve on juices of some kind. This section is confined to intra- 

 tropical Africa, and, as far as I am aware, only two females of it have ever as yet been brought 

 to Europe. There are, indeed, only five species of the section, with certainty known ; and of 

 all these five, I believe specimens may be seen in Great Britain. I shall now take the oppor- 

 tunity of distinguishing them, since some peculiar circumstances attending this magnificent 

 groupe, give me the means of communicating information that certainly no other person 

 possesses ; and because I have now before me the very specimens described by Drury and 

 Linnseus, and upon which specimens the genus GoUathus of Lamarck was originally 

 founded. 



Sp. (Cetoninus) GoUathus Drurii, West. 



Descr. GoUathus iiiger, capite thoracisque vittis quinque elytrorum ferrugineorum basi scutello- 

 que medio albis, vittseque thoracicse marginalis macula nigra. 

 $ Clypeo albo, lateribiis unidentatis : dente late emarginato, cornu medio porrecto bifido : ramis 



nigris divergentibus arcuatis apice dilatatis oblique truncatis. 

 $ Incognita. 



Scarabceus GoUathus^ Drury, vol. i. tab. 31. 



, Linn. Syst. Nat. Mant. p. 530. 



Cetonia GoUathus, Oliv. tab. 1. fig. 33. 



Long. 3 inches 6 lines. 



Note. The above synonyms of the male are, I believe, the only original ones founded on actual inspection 

 of the insect. The other writers who have touched on the subject, and they are not a few, have merely 

 known the species from the above figures. Now the original specimen, from which all the above notices 

 were taken, existed unique in Drury's collection, and was the first species of the Gigantic section ever 

 published. I therefore consider it as the type. The specimen was found dead, and floating down the river 



* Professor Klug and Mr. Hope, who have given us figures and descriptions of the only two females of the section 

 hitherto known, make not the sliglitest allusion to the existence of plautulse. 



