with a fort Hifery of the Cerambyx violaceus of Linnaeus, 4 53 
laceus, and informs us that it probably feeds upon the fir, but at the 
fame time expreffes a trong fufpicion that this beautiful infe&t is not 
originally Englifh. How far this may be true, it is not my intention to 
inquire; 1 (hall only obferve, that it is now become but too common, 
at leaft in one fpot, in the neighbourhood of London, as will appear 
from thofe circumftances of its hiftory which I am going to relate. 
My friend and relation Mr. James Trimmer of Old Brentford OT 
an attentive obferver of nature, more particularly of the economy 
and habits of infects, and to whom I am indebted for much 
. three 
curious and interefting information in this branch of fcience, fome 
time ago wrote to inform me, that he had found this infect in its 
{tates in fir-timber, and accompanied this intelligence with 
in my anfwer I requefted him to bring with him fome of its Jarve and 
pupe, and alfo fome pieces of the wood upon which they had been 
feeding; at the fame time I defired him to continue obferving their 
motions. What follows relative to the hiftory of this Cerambyx is — 
chiefly compiled from his communications, which I thought too 
interefting to be loft. © . dens : d 
The fir in which Mr. Trimmer firft found this infe&t was of 
€ 
sAN 
EAX DCC 
 Englifh growth, of the fpruce kind, which had not been felled 
H 
many years, and had originally grown near the {pot on which’ the 
building was erected in which it was employed: it did not appear 
to have been attacked more than two years when Mr. Trimmer 
made his obfervations ; and it fuffered moft in 1798, when the /arve 
had multiplied fo much, and been fo extremely voracious as to 
have left very little food for another year. Some Scotch fir in an 
(2) Son of Mrs. Trimmer, fo- juftly celebrated for her humane and fuccefsful exer- 
tions to procure the great blefling of & religious education for the children of the poor. ^ 
adjacent 
