250 
HERCULES BEETLE. 
Hercules Beetle. . Drury Ins. 1 . pi. 30. f. 1 , 2. Edwards 
Glean, pi. 334. Shaw Gen. Zool. 6. 
p. ip. pi. 1. 
This beetle is more remarkable for his size than for 
any thing interesting in his history. He is a most 
formidable-looking insect, and sometimes measures 
five or six inches in length. When he flies, the 
vibrations of his wings may be heard at a consi- 
derable distance. The surface of the wing-covers 
in this species is perfectly smooth, and their dark 
ground-colour is generally studded with spots of a 
still darker tint. Nothing can exceed the black- 
ness of the head and limbs, except the colour of the 
horns, which are merely horizontal continuations of 
the thorax and the head. Our temperate climates 
are not visited by this enormous species, but in 
several parts of South America they are said to 
abound ; and great numbers, we are informed, col- 
lect together on the mammee tree, where they em- 
ploy themselves in rasping off the rind from the 
tender branches, in order to get the sap, of which 
it seems they are so very fond, that they drink to 
intoxication, and thus fall senseless to the ground. 
This account, however, has been doubted by a 
learned entomologist ; who very properly remarks, 
that the beard in this case would be rubbed off the 
under surface of the large horn, in consequence of 
the friction to which it must necessarily be exposed 
by the insect removing the rind from the tree. 
The two sexes resemble each other in every re- 
