230 INSECTS ABROAD. 



being so small as to be practically absent. The first three joints 

 are always clothed with fur-like liair, which in many species is 

 of a bright golden colour, and exceedingly conspicuous. 



In the larval state, the Longicornes are all wood-borers, and 

 to them is appointed the chief part of the task of destroying 

 dead timber. It has long become a mooted question whether 

 any of the Longicorn larvae attack sound and healthy trees. At 

 all events it is quite certain that, whether they do or not, they 

 infinitely prefer dead timber, and that when a practised entomo- 

 logist wants to find Longicorn Beetles in their larval or pupal 

 stages, he always goes to dead timber, and not to living trees. 



Take, for example, one of our commonest and most beautiful 

 wood-borers, the Musk Beetle. It is very true that the insect 

 may be found in wiUow-trees which are in full leaf. But the 

 willow, as we all know, is one of those trees which is perfectly 

 content so long as its bark exists entire, and flourishes and in- 

 creases though the trunk be entirely hollow. And whenever 

 the larva of a Musk Beetle is discovered, it is invariably found 

 in the decaying, and not in the sound wood. So again with our 

 smaller Longicornes. The best specimens are always taken by 

 being dug out of decaying wood, — mostly rotten stumps in 

 which the supply of sap has not quite ceased, but no entomo- 

 logist would waste his time by looking for them in sound and 

 healthy trees. 



The larv?e are white, flatfish, soft-bodied, hard-headed grubs, 

 always larger in front than behind, so that they may pass the 

 easier through the tunnels which they gnaw in the wood. The 

 jaws are exceedingly sharp and powerful, made almost exactly 

 like a surgeon's bone-nippers, and the head can be drawn back 

 so that it is almost hidden by the thorax. They possess legs, 

 but do not require to use them, thrusting themselves forwards by 

 means of the rings of the body, which are very deeply cut, and 

 furnished with a sort of hump on the upper surface. 



In order to enable the female to deposit her eggs in favour- 

 able positions, she is furnished with a long, telescopic ovipositor, 

 which can be protruded to a considerable distance, and is almost 

 as mobile as the proboscis of the elephant or the tail of the 

 Spider Monkey. With this instrument she can push her eggs 

 under the bark, or into crevices, feeling about until she has satis- 

 fied herself that the egg is in a safe position. 



