38 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



are generally much larger than the males, and often want the cop- 

 pery polish of the latter. They measure from eight tenths of an 

 inch to one inch and one tenth in length. They are nocturnal 

 insects, and conceal themselves during the day in the crevices 

 and hollows of trees, where they feed upon the sap that flows 

 from the bark. They have the odor of Russia leather, and give 

 this out so powerfully, that their presence can be detected, by the 

 scent alone, at the distance of two or three yards from the place 

 of their retreat. This strong smell suggested the name Osmo der- 

 ma, that is scented skin, given to these beetles by the French 

 naturalists. They seem particularly fond of the juices of cherry 

 and apple trees ; in the hollows of which I have often discovered 

 them. Their larva? live in the hollows of these same trees, feed- 

 ing upon the diseased wood, and causing it more rapidly to decay. 

 They are whitish fleshy grubs, with a reddish hard-shelled head, 

 and closely resemble the grubs of the common dor-beetle. In 

 the autumn each one makes an oval cell or pod, of fragments of 

 wood, strongly cemented with a kind of glue ; it goes through its 

 transformation within this cell, and comes forth in the beetle form 

 in the month of July. 



We have another scented beetle, equal in size to the preced- 

 ing, of a deep mahogany-brown color, perfectly smooth, and 

 highly polished, and the male has a deep pit before the middle of 

 the thorax. This species of Osmoderma is called ercmicola*, a 

 name that cannot be rendered literally into English by any single 

 word ; it signifies wilderness-inhabitant, for which might be sub- 

 stituted hermit. I believe that this insect lives in forest-trees, 

 but the larva is unknown to me. 



The family Lucanid^e, or Lucanians, so named from the Lin- 

 naean genus Lucanus, must be placed next to the Scarabacians in a 

 natural arrangement. This family includes the insects called stag- 

 beetles, horn-bugs, and flying-bulls, names that they have obtained 

 from the great size and peculiar form of their upper jaws, which 

 are sometimes curved like the horns of cattle, and sometimes 

 branched like the antlers of a stag. In these beetles the body is 

 hard, oblong, rounded behind, and slightly convex ; the head is 



* Cctonia crcmicola of Knoch. 



