NATURAL HISTORY. / eae 
‘fillets of the ftuff wherewith they build their lodgings. Thus, having 
given fome account of infeéts in general, we fhall now proceed .to par- 
Aiculars. 
Cort AS Ti. 
OF INSECTS OF THE BEETLE KIND. 
eae Beetle is a flying infe@, with a cafe over its wings to defend 
them from danger when it does not fly; though fome would have 
‘thefe cafes a different fort of wings, and therefore place them among 
four winged infeéts but very improperly; for they feem to be defigned 
‘by nature to preferve their wings from hard bodies, which they often 
Meet with when they dig holes in the ground, or gnaw rotten wood 
with their teeth, to make themfelves houfes or nefts. When they fly 
they fill the air with a humming noife, and perhaps greater than that 
of any other infest. They have a great averfion to rofes, whofe {mell 
they cannot bear, and fome affirm it will kill them. They are natu- 
Tally fond of ivy, and delight to get under its leaves. There are differ- 
ent forts of Beetles, fome being large with horns, and others fmall 
with none, from which they have different names. 
The Elephant Beetle is the largelt of this kind hitherto known, and is 
found in South-America, particularly Guiana and Surinam, as well as 
about the river Oroonoko. It is of a black colour, and the whole body 
is covered with a very hard fhell, full as thick and as ftrong as that of 
afmall crab. Its length from the hinder part to the eyes is almoft 
four inches, and from the fame part to the end of the probofcis or 
trunk four inches and three quarters. The tranfverfe diameter of the 
body is two inches and a quarter, and the breadth of each elytron or 
Cafe for the wings is an inch and three tenths. The antenne horns or 
‘feelers are quite horny, for which reafon the probofcis or trunk is move- 
‘able at its infertion into the head, and feems to fupply the place of 
feelers. The horns are eight tenths of an inch long, and terminate in 
Points. The probofcis is an inch and a quarter long, and turns up- 
wards, making a crooked line terminating in two horns, each of which 
48 near a quarter of an inch long; but they are not perforated at the 
nd like the probofcis of other infe&s. About four tenths of an inch 
above the head on that fide next the body is a prominence or fmall 
horn, which if the reft of the trunk were-away, would caufe this part 
to refemble the horn of a Rhinoceros. There is indeed a Beetle fo 
Called ; but then the horn or trunk has no fork at the end, though the 
lower horn refembles this. The feet are all forked at the end, but not 
ike lobfters claws. ? 
The Rhinoceros Beetle, of this there are feveral kinds, one of which 
was brought from the Eafl-Jndies, and is of a jet-black colour, and has 
@ horn growing on its nofe which turns upwards; and about the mid- 
dle of the belly there is another horn, which arifes from a tubercle and _ 
turns inwards. The whole body, from the end of the horn to the back — 
Part, is four inches long, and cai aes is almoft two. It has alfo 
2 - twa 
