ORYCTES NASICORNIS. Thorace prominentiâ triplici, capitis cornu recurvo,
elytris lævibus. (Long. Corp. 1 unc. 3 lin.)
SYN. Scarabæus Nasicornis, _Linn. Syst. Nat._ 1. 11. _p._ 544. _No._ 15.
_Oliv. Ent._ 1. 3. _p._ 37. _No._ 41. _t._ 3. _f._ 19. _a-d_. _Panzer
Faun. Ins. G._ 28. _No._ 2. [male]. _Roesel Ins._ 11. I. _p._ 41-65. _n._
5. _t._ 7. _f._ 8. [male]. _f._ 10. [female]. & _t._ 6, 8 & 9. Larva,
Pupa, &c. _Stephens Illustr. Brit. Ent. Mandibulata_, 3. _p._ 216.
HABITAT: Holland, and other parts of Europe.
_Male._ Head black, with a horn terminating in a point, and bending
backwards. Eyes red brown. Thorax brown, almost black, margined and
prominent, terminating upwards in three pointed tubercles. Scutellum
black, and nearly triangular. Elytra red brown, smooth, shining, slightly
margined. The abdomen, legs, and all the under parts of a red brown, and
hairy. Tibiæ spined.
_Female._ Resembles the male in every thing but the head and thorax;
having on the former, instead of the horn, a small tubercle, and on the
latter a small impression in the place of the pointed knobs.
This insect has been introduced into the list of British species on the
authority of the late Mr. Haworth, who recorded the fact of a living
specimen having been taken by a bricklayer amongst old timber, on pulling
down the roof of a building at Chelsea, (Entom. Trans, vol. i. p. 76.) Mr.
Stephens, however, (loc. supra citat.) thinks it very doubtful whether the
species be really indigenous, as it appears highly probable that the
specimen above alluded to, may have been imported amongst some of the
Continental plants which abound in the above vicinity, the insect occurring
very copiously in rotten bark, the refuse of conservatories, and putrid
wood in various parts of the Continent.