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. ♂. Roesel Ins. 11. I. p. 41-65. n. 5. t. 7. f. 8. ♂. f. 10. ♀. & 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.
PLATE XXXV.
ONITIS SULCATUS.
Plate [XXXV]. fig. 1.