elephant beetle (elefantbe"tl)

1. A name of several lamellicorn scarabæoid beetles of enormous size. Specifically - ( a ) Any species of the cetonian genus Goliath us. See goliath - beetle. (b) Any species of either of the genera Dynastes and Megasoma. M. elephas is a large American species. Some of the elephant-beetles, as Dynastes hercules of tropical America, attain a total length of 6 inches, but of this the long pro thoracic horn makes about half. See cut under Hercules IMG:content-0315.png:[blocks in formation] 1875