110 THE PIXE DESTROYER. 



He also worked out the life-history of Hylurgus piniperda, but did 

 not publish his observations, as he found that Ferris and others 

 had already written fully on the subject. This is much to be 

 regretted, as the authors to whom he refers are almost unknown 

 to the English public, although their works may be of standard 

 value to the specialist. 



Description. 



We come now to the individual character of the species before 

 us. For the sake of clearness it may be well to take first a general 

 view of the insect, then go more fully into the microscopic details. 

 Hylurgus piniperda is exactly three-sixteenths of an inch in length 

 (as far as my experience and measurements go) ; it is of a some- 

 what brick-red colour when young, becoming darker with age, till 

 having passed through a brown, it finally reaches a black, '^ pitchy 

 colour. Under a pocket lens it is seen to be covered with minute 

 punctures, which are arranged in nine rows or striae on each of the 

 elytra, and gives rise to lines of hairs, causing the appearance of 

 pubescence, which every observer will at once recognise. The 

 wing-cases or elytra are strong, a little broader than the thorax, 

 and rounded down at the sides and posterior extremity in such a 

 way as to fit exactly over the wings and abdomen. It is very curious 

 to observe the way in which the insect progresses from the earliest 

 stage to this condition of perfection. First comes the egg, which 

 the female deposits under the bark of the fir-tree in early spring,t 

 and from which in due time the larvse or maggots are hatched. 

 The larvae are about one quarter inch in length, and have no legs. 

 They are fleshy, and of an ochreous colour about the head and 

 tail, and whitish over the rest of the body. The rings behind the 

 head are larger than those of the posterior part of the body. The 

 period during which the larvae remain in their tunnels, as well as 

 that occupied by the pupae, depends largely on the season. If 

 wet and cold, progress is slow, but if the season is hot the beetles 

 emerge from the dead pine trees, where they have so far passed 

 their life, and begin to fly about among the living pines in July or 



* Not real, but apparent as micro-mounts show. 

 + Miss Ormerod's Manual, etc., pp. 217 — 8. 



