COLEOPTERA. 73 



more or less crooked or curved in the middle, and end with an 

 oval knob ; the feelers are very short. The thorax is rather long, 

 and as broad as the following part of the body. The wing-covers 

 are frequently cut off* obliquely or hollowed at the hinder ex- 

 tremity. The legs are short and strong, with little teeth on the 

 outer edge or extremity of the shanks, and the feet are not wide 

 and spongy beneath. 



Though these cylindrical bark-beetles are of small size, they 

 multiply very fast, and where they abound are productive of much 

 mischief, particularly in forests, which are often greatly injured by 

 their larvae, and the wood is rendered unfit for the purposes of 

 art. In the year 17S0, an insect of this family made its appear- 

 ance in the pine-trees of one of the mining districts of Germany, 

 where it increased so rapidly that in three years afterwards whole 

 forests had disappeared beneath its ravages, and an end was 

 nearly put to the working of the extensive mines in this range of 

 country, for the want of fuel to carry on the operations. Pines 

 and firs are the most subject to their attacks, but there are some 

 kinds which infest other trees. The premature decay of the elm 

 in some parts of Europe is occasioned by the ravages of the 

 Scolytus destructor, of which an interesting account was written in 

 1824, by Mr. Macleay. An abstract of his paper may be found 

 in the fifth volume of the "New England Farmer."* The larvae 

 or grubs of these bark-beetles resemble those of the Hylurgus 

 terebrans or pine bark-beetle already described. Like the grubs 

 of the weevils, they are short and thick, and destitute of legs. 



The red cedar is inhabited by a very small bark-beetle, named 

 by Mr. Say Hylurgus dentatus, the toothed Hylurgus. It is 

 nearly one tenth of an inch in length, and of a dark brown color ; 

 the wing-cases are rough with little grains, which become more 

 elevated towards the hinder part, and are arranged in longitudinal 

 rows, with little furrows between them. The tooth-like appear- 

 ance of these little elevations suggested the name given to this 

 species. The female bores a cylindrical passage beneath the 

 bark of the cedar, dropping her eggs at short intervals as she goes 

 along, and dies at the end of her burrow when her eggs are all 



* Page 169. 

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