n6 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



was so called by Linnaeus on account of the letter- 

 like character of some of its tunnels. Small beetles 

 of the genera Pissodes and Bostrichus also perform 

 their carpentry work in the bark of various trees. 



But the carpenter among beetles is the grub of 

 the Stag Beetle (Lucanus cervus), the largest of 

 our native species. It spends four years in this 

 condition and attains a considerable size, so that 

 it would be a wood- destroyer to be dreaded were 

 it not for the fact that it restricts its attention to 

 those trees whose timber is decaying. It is there- 

 fore regarded as harmless. At the end of the 

 larval period it makes a cocoon and changes to a 

 pupa, in which condition it rests for a short period 

 only, soon assuming the perfect form, but then 

 remaining inactive for some months, only issuing 

 to public view when the warm evenings of June 

 have arrived, when in the southern counties it 

 may be seen in great numbers flying about the 

 lanes and fields. Its pabulum is chiefly oak, but 

 it is often found in old willows. Two allied species, 

 Sinodendron cylindricum and Dorcus parallelopipedus, 

 have similar habits, but are comparatively rare. 



Lymexylon navale differs from these in attacking 

 solid, hard wood into which it bores long cylindrical 

 holes. In the days when our navy depended upon 

 sound timber the ravages of this beetle used to 

 cause alarm, but now that we no longer grow timber 

 trees seriously, but mainly as cover for game, it 

 appears to have lost its character as a pest. It 

 certainly no longer obtrudes itself upon public 



