COLEOPTERA 



527 



Fig. 639. 



side (Fig. 639). It received its name because of the three ridges 

 extending lengthwise on each wing-cover. Its larva bores in the 

 wood of pine-trees. On one occasion the writer found 

 many of them in a pine-tree eight inches in diameter, 

 which they had bored through and through. When the 

 larva is full-grown it makes a hole nearly through the 

 thick bark of the tree, so that it may easily push its 

 way out after its transformations; it then retreats a 

 short distance and makes a little ring of chips around 

 itself, between the bark and the wood, and changes to a 

 pupa within this rude cocoon. The adult beetle re- 

 mains in this pupal cell through the winter. 



The cloaked knotty-horn, Desmocerus pallidtus. — This beautiful 

 insect is of a dark blue color, with greenish reflections. The basal 

 part of the wing-covers is orange-yellow, 

 giving the insect the appearance of having 

 a yellow cape thrown over its shoulders 

 (Fig. 640). The segments in the middle of 

 the antennae are thickened at the outer end, 

 so that they look like a series of knots. 

 The adult is quite common in June and July 

 on elder, in the pith of which the larva bores. 

 The beautiful maple-borer, Glycobius 

 speciosus. — This is a handsome insect, 

 p. marked with black and yellow, as indicated 



^^" ^'^' in Figure 641. It lays its eggs in midsimi- 



mer on the trunks of sugar-maples, in the wood of which the larvae 

 bore. If an infested tree be examined in the spring the presence of 

 these borers can be detected by 

 the dust that falls from the bur- 

 rows. The larvae can be de- 

 stroyed at this time by the use of 

 a knife and a stiff wire. 



The locust-borer, Cyllene ro- 

 hmcB. — To the enthusiastic ento- 

 mologist the goldenrod is a rich 

 mine, yielding to the collector 

 more treasures than any other 

 flower. It gives up its gold-dust 

 pollen to every insect-seeker ; and 

 because of this generous attitude to all comers 

 it is truly emblematic of the country that has 

 chosen it as its national flower. 



Among the insects that revel in this golden 

 mine in the autimm is a black beetle with numerous transverse or 

 wavy yellow bands (Fig. 642). This beetle is also found on locust- 

 trees, where it lays its eggs. The larvae bore under the bark and into 

 the hard wood; they attain their growth in a little less than a year. 

 The locust-trees have been completely destroyed in some localities 

 by the depredations of these larvae. 



Fig. 642. 



Fig. 641. 



