86 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



the form of the beautiful maple Clytus. It is velvet-black, and 

 ornamented with transverse yellow bands, of which there are 

 three on the head, four on the thorax, and six on the wing-covers, 

 the tips of which are also edged with yellow. The first and 

 second bands on each wing-cover are nearly straight ; the third 

 band forms a V, or, united with the opposite one, a W, as in the 

 speciosus ; the fourth is also angled, and runs upwards on the 

 inner margin of the wing-cover towards the scutel ; the fifth is 

 broken or interrupted by a longitudinal elevated line ; and the 

 sixth is arched, and consists of three little spots. The antennae 

 are dark brown ; and the legs are rust-red. These insects vary 

 from six tenths to three quarters of an inch in length. 



In the month of September these beetles gather on the locust- 

 trees, where they may be seen glittering in the sun-beams with 

 their gorgeous livery of black velvet and gold, coursing up and 

 down the trunks in pursuit of their mates, or to drive away their 

 rivals, and stopping every now and then to salute those they meet 

 with a rapid bowing of the shoulders, accompanied by a creaking 

 sound, indicative of recognition or defiance. Having paired, the 

 female, attended by her partner, creeps over the bark, searching 

 the crevices with her antennae, and dropping therein her snow- 

 white eggs, in clusters of seven or eight together, and at intervals 

 of five or six minutes, till her whole stock is safely stored. The 

 eggs are soon hatched, and the grubs immediately burrow into the 

 bark, devouring the soft inner substance that suffices for their 

 nourishment till the approach of winter, during which they remain 

 at rest in a torpid state. In the spring they bore through the sap- 

 wood, more or less deeply into the trunk, the general course of 

 their winding and irregular passages, being in an upward direction 

 from the place of their entrance. For a time they cast their chips 

 out of their holes as fast as they are made, but after a while the 

 passage becomes clogged and the burrow more or less filled with 

 the coarse and fibrous fragments of wood, to get rid of which the 

 grubs are often obliged to open new holes through the bark. The 

 seat of their operations is known by the oozing of the sap and the 

 dropping of the saw-dust from the holes. The bark around the 

 part attacked begins to swell, and in a few years the trunks and 

 limbs will become disfigured and weakened by large porous 



