528 



AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY 



The painted hickory-borer, Cyllene caryce. — This beetle resembles 

 the preceding so closely that the same figure will represent either. 

 But the hickory-borer not only infests a different kind of tree, but 

 appears in the spring instead of the autumn. In this species the 

 second segment of the hind tarsus is densely pubescent beneath, 

 while it is glabrous in the locust-borer. 



The oak-pruner, Hypermdlliis villosus. — The work of this insect 

 is much more likely to attract attention than -the insect itself. Fre- 

 quently, in the autimm, the ground beneath oak-trees, and sometimes 

 beneath apple-trees also, is strewn with small branches that have 

 been neatly severed from the trees as if with a saw. These branches 

 are sometimes nearly 25 mm. in diameter, and have been cut off by 

 the larva of a beetle, which on account of this habit is called the oak- 

 pruner. The beetle lays each of its eggs in a small twig. The larva 

 eats out the inside of this twig, and works down into a larger branch, 

 following the center of it towards the trunk of the tree. When full- 

 grown the lan^a enlarges the burrow suddenly, so as nearly to sever 

 the branch from the tree, leaving only the bark and a few fibers of 

 wood. It then retreats up its burrow a short distance, and builds a 

 plug of chips below it. The autumn winds break the branch from 

 the tree. The larva remains in its burrow through the winter, and 

 undergoes its transformations in the spring. No one has explained 

 its object in severing the branch. The adult is a plain, brownish gray 

 beetle. Whenever it becomes abundant its increase can be checked 

 by gathering the fallen branches in the autumn and burning them 

 before the beetles have escaped. 



Subfamily LAMIIN^E 



The Lamiids 



As in the preceding subfamily, the prothorax is rounded with these 



beetles; but the lamiids 

 are distinguished by hav- 

 ing the fore tibia? oblique- 

 ly grooved on the inner 

 side, and the last segment 

 of the palpi cylindrical 

 and pointed. The follow- 

 ing are some of the more 

 important species. 



The sawyer, Mono- 



chanius notdtus. — This 



beautiful brown and gray 



beetle is about 30 mm. 



long, with antennas aslong 



as the body in the case of 



the female and twice as 



p. , long in the case of the 



^''^•^'^^- male (Fig. 643). The 



larva bores in the sound wood of pine and of fir, making, when full- 



