92 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



The Lepturians, or Lepturad^, constitute the third family 

 of the Capricorn-beetles. In most of them the body is narrowed 

 behind, which is the origin of the name applied to them, signify- 

 ing really narrow tail. They differ from the other Capricorn- 

 beetles in the form of their eyes, which are not deeply notched, but 

 are either oval or rounded and prominent, and the antennae are more 

 distant from them, and are implanted near the middle of the fore- 

 head. Moreover the head is not deeply sunk in the forepart of 

 the thorax, but is connected with it by a narrowed neck. The 

 thorax varies somewhat in shape, but is generally narrowed before 

 and widened behind. The Lepturians are often gayly colored, and 

 fly about by day, visiting flowers for the sake of the pollen and 

 tender leaves, which they eat. Their grubs live in the trunks and 

 stumps of trees, are rather broad and somewhat flattened, and are 

 mostly furnished with six extremely short legs. 



The largest and finest of these beetles in New England is the 

 Desmocerus palliaius*, which appears on the flowers and leaves 

 of the common elder towards the end of June and until the mid- 

 dle of July. It is of a deep violet or Prussian blue color, some- 

 times glossed with green, and nearly one half of the forepart of 

 the wing-covers is orange-yellow, suggesting the idea of a short 

 cloak of this color thrown over the shoulders, which the name 

 palliatus, that is cloaked, was designed to express. The head is 

 narrow. The thorax has nearly the form of a cone cut off at the 

 top, being narrow before and wide behind; it is somewhat uneven, 

 and has a little sharp projecting point on each side of the base. 

 The antennae have the third and the three following joints ab- 

 ruptly thickened at the extremity, giving them the knotty appear- 

 ance indicated by the generical name Dcmocerus, which signifies 

 knotty horn. The larvae live in the lower part of the stems of 

 the elder, and devour the pith ; they have hitherto escaped my 

 researches, but I have found the beetles in the burrows made by 



them. 



The bark of the pitch-pine is often extensively loosened by the 

 grubs of Lepturians at work beneath it, in consequence of which 

 it falls off in large flakes, and the tree perishes. These grubs live 



* Cerambyx ■palliatus of Forster; Stenocurus cyaneus, Fabricius. 



