WONDERFUL INSECTS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8935, 28 September 1907, Page 4

WONDERFUL INSECTS.

Visitors the Loudon Zoo just uow are taking an interest in tlie Insect House, where some very wonderful uow arrivals are being studied by naturalists. Tito Goliath beetle, from Soutli America, would scud a .British -housemaid into hysterics. Its body, arrayed almost clerically in black and white, is nearly live inches long. It is not poisonous, nor is it intentionally ferocious, but there is a spot between the neck and shoulders which acts like a vice. A Anger placed on this aperture would bo broken at once, and on a recent Saturday a keeper who inserted a kev in “the junction” found that Goliath had bent the key merely by shrugging its shoulders. This groat beetle is an inexpensive guest, as he only feeds on fruit which is absolutely rotten. Close by the Goliath beetle are two newly-arrived birdeating spiders. On 3 of them hails from Central America. For concentrated wickedness it beats any known living thing. It keeps disreputable hours, and attacks evorthiug it meets in its midnight prowls, _ from fledglings to mice. Its bite will kill a man in less than half an hour. The Zoo authorities are not indulging its tastes for the blood of small birds and mice, and are feeding it_ on cockroaches and worms. It is four inches long, and is just changing its hairy coat, which is a rusty' brown.