GOLIATHUS GIGANTEUS. Thorace piceo, nudo, holosericeo-albo lineato;
elytris glaucis, clypeo porrecto bifido. (Long. Corp. 4 unc. 3 lin.)
SYN. Goliathus Giganteus, _Kirby in Introd. to Ent. vol._ 3. _p._ 33.
_v._ 4. _p._ 493.
Scarabæus Goliathus, _Linn. Mant._ 5. 30.
Cetonia Goliata, _Fabr. Ent. Syst._ 1. 2. _p._ 124. 1.
Cetonia Goliathus, _Olivier_, 1. _No._ 6. _pl._ 5. _f._ 33.
Goliathus Magnus, _Naturalist's Library, Beetles, pl._ 16.
Goliathus Africanus, _De Lamarck Anim. sans Vert_.
HABITAT: Western Africa, near the Equinoctial line.
Head, above, flesh-coloured; beneath, black; about three-fourths of an
inch in length, terminating in two blunt, obtuse, and irregular horns.
Two other thick and jagged horns also arise from its sides, much shorter
than the former. Its breadth at the base is half an inch; having a small
projecting ridge running along the middle, from thence to the extremity,
at the base of the horns. Thorax an inch and a half long, being
principally black; but along the sides is flesh-coloured. It has also
five narrow and irregular waved lines of a flesh colour running from the
anterior to the posterior edges; one of which, being in the middle of the
thorax, is narrower than the rest; the two next this terminate at the
posterior edges in a fine rose colour; these next the lateral edges are
broadest, having likewise a patch of rose colour next the wing-cases.
About the middle of the thorax, these external lines separate and divide,
continuing so almost to the anterior edges, where they again unite. The
under part of the thorax is flesh colour; but in the middle of a
yellowish brown. The scutellum is triangular and black; with a clear
white central oblong mark truncated in front. Elytra beautiful
chocolate-coloured, and {62}covered with a great number of short fine
hairs, resembling the pile on velvet; the anterior part, with a narrow
and indented margin, of a cream colour, also surrounding the scutellum.
The elytra are two inches broad at the base. Legs very dark green colour,
almost black. Intermediate and posterior femora and tibiæ with dark
yellow hairs. Abdomen very dark green, furnished on the sides and edge
with dark yellow hairs. Sternum rather long.
This magnificent insect may be regarded as one of the rarest species
figured in these Illustrations. Drury states, that the specimen here
represented was brought from Africa by Mr. Ogilvie, surgeon of His
Majesty's ship the Renown, being found floating, dead, in the river Gaboon,
opposite Prince's Island, near the equinoctial line. Nearly seventy years
have elapsed since the insect was first described, and yet the insect
remains, as far as my knowledge extends, unique.[23] It would appear that
the specimen either belonged to or passed into the hands of Dr. Hunter
after the death of Mr. Drury, for Fabricius describes the species with a
citation of the museum of Dr. Hunter alone; and Olivier's figure was taken
from the specimen whilst it was in that gentleman's possession. After his
decease it passed, with his collection, by bequest, into the possession of
the University of Glasgow, where it now forms one of the most interesting
objects in the Hunterian Museum. Joseph Hooker, Esq., son of Sir W. Hooker,
the highly distinguished botanist of Glasgow, tells me that the individual
in question was picked up by a sailor in the river above mentioned, and
that it is stated in the MSS. of Dr. Hunter that it cost Mr. Drury £10. In
the Catalogue of the Insects of Mr. Drury, which were sold by auction at
the Natural History Sale Rooms in King Street, Covent Garden (now occupied
by Mr. J. C. Stevens), on the 23rd of May, 1805, and two following days,
the 95th lot is described as "Scarabæus Goliathus, _var._" Whence it would
appear that the insect here figured was not in the possession of Mr. Drury
at his decease, and that he only possessed the insect figured in the 3rd
volume of these Illustrations, pl. 40, which evidently on the authority of
Fabricius he had regarded as a variety only of the specimen here figured.
The genus Goliathus is exceedingly interesting, not only on account of the
gigantic size and singular form of the species of which it is composed, but
also from the geographical range of the group. Mr. Kirby observes upon this
subject, "Mr. W. S. MacLeay has remarked to me that Goliathus Lam. appears
to belt the globe, but not under one form. The types of the genus are the
vast African Goliaths (G. giganteus, &c.), which, as well as G. Polyphemus,
and another brought from Java by Dr. Horsfield, have, like Cetonia, the
scapulars interposed between the posterior angles of the prothorax and the
shoulders of the elytra, while the South American species (G. micans,[24]
&c.) have not this projection of the scapulars; in this resembling
Trichius; Mr. MacLeay further observes, that the {63}female of the Javanese
Goliathus is exactly a Cetonia, while that of the Brazilian is a
Trichius."--_Introd. to Entomology_, vol. 4. p. 494.
Since the publication of this passage, the genus Goliathus has undergone a
considerable revision; the South American species, Cetonia Ynca, _Fabr._
barbicornis, _MacLeay_, _&c._, have been separated from the genus by Saint
Fargeau and Serville in the Encyclopédie Méthodique, under the generic name
of Ynca, and the Javanese species above noticed (Gol. Rhinophyllus[25]
_Wiedemann_) is stated by Latreille in the Règne Animal, 2nd edition, not
to belong to the genus Goliathus, but to that of Cetonia. The genus is thus
restricted to the African species,[26] with the exception of a Mexican
insect which Dejean has named Goliathus Hoffneri. The genus Ynca may thus
be regarded rather as a geographical subgenus, or type of form belonging to
and representing the African species of Goliathus.