158 



NEW COLEOPTEROUS INSECT. 



which, having placed the leg at a proper distance, and it had become per- 

 fectly steady and quiet, no part of her body moved but the boring apparatus; 

 she at first took about five minutes to sink a hole, but the second she took 

 five or seven minutes, and the third day she seemed so much exhausted 

 that she could scarcely sink a hole at all, often failing completely to pierce 

 the bark; and the fourth day she died from exhaustion. The boring tool 

 seemed to be a couple, at least, of saws laid flat upon each other, with 

 teeth the reverse way, and the outsides something like a rasp." 



These proceedings of the female Sirex are, we consider, quite sufficient to 

 disprove the view of Count de Saint Fargeau, (see "Hist: Nat: Hymenop- 

 tera," tome i.,) that the Sindicce are parasitic upon other insects, like the Ich- 

 neumonidoe. Besides the structure of the mouth of the larva of the Sirex is 

 eminently formed for feeding upon wood. Mr. Marsham relates on the 

 authority of Sir Joseph Banks, that several specimens of S. gigas were seen 

 to come out of the floor of a nursery in a gentleman's house, to the great 

 horror of nurse and children. In this case the floor of the room could not 

 have been long laid down, and the planks must have contained the larvae 

 of the Sirexes. Mr. Stephens says that the fir plantations of Mr. Foljambe, 

 in Yorkshire, were destroyed by Sirex gigas; while the trees of another plan- 

 tation belonging to the same gentleman in Wiltshire, met with a similar 

 fate from the attacks of S. juvevcus. We have been informed that considerable 

 quantities of the males, of which species we are not quite certain, have been 

 captured flying about the tower of York Minster, no doubt seeking the females. 



Any further information on these interesting insects will be greatly esteemed 

 by us. 



5, Middle Street, Taunton, February llih., 1854. 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW COLEOPTEROUS 

 INSECT BELONGING TO THE GENUS PBI0NU8. 



BY JOHN GRAY, ESQ. 



Amongst a small lot of beetles, collected in the neighbourhood of Ava, 

 which I received some years ago, there occurred a striking species of Prionus, 

 apparently undescribed. As subsequent enquiries have satisfactorily confirmed 

 this opinion, I have deemed it proper to record the species; and thus make 

 another fine addition to the magnificent entomological fauna of the East. As it 

 seems to agree, in all characters of generic value, with those of Prionus proper, 

 I propose in dedicating it to the accomplished author of "The Cabinet of 

 Oriental Entomology," to make it known under the name of 



PEIONUS WESTWOODIANUS. 



P. brunneus, Antennis acute serratis, corpore paulo longioribus; Mandihulis 

 incurvis capitis longitudine, exfus bidentatis, intus inermibus; Thorace utrinque 



