Illustrations of Exotic Entomology, Volume 1

by Dru Drury

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 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.

PLATE XXXII.

DIAPREPES SPENGLERI.

Plate [XXXII]. fig. 1.

Order: Coleoptera. Section: Rhyncophora. Family: Curculionidæ. Subfamily: Brachyderides.

Genus. Diaprepes, Schonherr. Chlorima, Dej. Curculio, Linn. &c.

Diaprepes Spengleri. Niger, thorace albo-squamoso, elytris squamositate flava vestitis, saturâ, margine striisque tribus elevatis, nudis, nigris, notatis. (Long. Corp. 7 lin.)

Syn. Curculio Spengleri, Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. 2. 609. 32. Fabr. Syst. Eleuth. 2. 532. No. 149. Oliv. Ent. V. 83. 311. No. 345. t. 2. f. 15. C. T. 20. f. 254. Herbst. Col. 6. t. 68. f. 11. & T. 69. f. 1. Schonh. Syn. Ins. Curcul. 2. p. 8. No. 1.