22 



A FEW COMMON WOOD-BORING BEETLES. 



BY THE BEV. C .T. a. BSTHCNE, M. A., PORT HOPE, ONT. 

 EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 



Pig. 1. Monohammm scvtdlahm, Say — A Pine-tree Borer. 



Fig. 2. Clytus spctciosvs, Sap. — The Maple-tree Borer. 



Fig. 3. Orthoxoma ci/lindrmmi. Fab. — A Pine tree Borer. 



Fig. 4. Cli/his robim'ce, Fcrst. — The Locust-tree Borer. 



Fig. 'i. Chrysohothris fcmarata, Fab. — The Buyrestis Apple-tree Borer. 



Fig. 6. Saperda Candida, Fab. — The Wlnte-lined Apple-tree Borer. 



Fig. 7. Monohaminus confvsor, Kirby. — The Pine tree Borer. 



Fig. 8. Oberea tripundata, Fab.- — The Raspberry Twig Uirdler. 



Our Canadian wood-boring beetles, with the exception of a few somewhat minute species, 

 belong to the two great families of Buprestidae and Cerambycidee. These include an im- 

 mense number of different genera and species ; in Crotch's List of the Coleoptera of North 

 America (north of Mexico), there are enumerated the names of no less than 169 species of the 

 former family and 552 of the latter , about one-third of these are found in this country. It 

 is evident, then, that to give a bare list of all our Canadian species of wood-borers would oc- 

 cupy no little space, while a detailed description of them, if one were competent for the task, 

 would fill many issues of this Report. We propose, therefore, on the present occasion to merely 

 give a brief account of the eight species depicted on the accompanying plate. The.«e we have 

 selected on account of their frequent occurrence in almost all parts of the country, and the 

 consequent familiarity of their appearance even to non-Entomologists. Our readers will, we 

 are sure, be pleased with the beauty of the figures, which have been admirably drawn upon 

 stone by Mr. L. Trouvelot, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



Taking the species in the order in which they are numbered on the plate, we come first to 



I. MoNOHAMMUs SouTELLATUs, Say — A Pine-Tree Borer. 



This beetle, which derives its specific name from its conspicuously white scutellum, is of 

 a shining black colour on both the upper and under surfaces, thickly punctured with irregu- 

 lar impressions ; on the wing-cases there are, as shown in the figure, a number of scattered 

 whitish spots of various shapes and sizes ; these, on close inspection, are found to be com- 

 posed of dense short white hairs, which often become rubbed off and disappear ; the thorax is 

 armed on each side with a thick triangular spine ; the antennae are many-jointed, and about 

 the same length as the body in the male, while in the female they are about twice that pro- 

 portion. The size of the beetle varies from less than half an inch in the male to over three- 

 quarters of an inch (exclusive of the antennae) in the female. The larva is a large thick 

 white grub, destitute of legs, divided into a number of well-marked segments ; the head armed 

 with a strong pair of jaws. The larva infests the pine, after the timber has been cut or newly 

 fallen, and often causes serious injury to it by boring large oval-shaped holes which extend 

 for long distances throutrh the interior of the log. The perfect insects appear in June, and 

 are sometimes very abundant ; we have occasionally found them swarming in great numbers 

 on fallen pine tree.<. The insect is common throughout Canada and the neighbouring States. 



The following general account of the larvie of the family (Cerambi/cidir), to which 

 this beetle belongs, taken from Harris's Injurious Insects, pages 93-4, will be of interest, 

 and will enable the reader the more readily to understand the structures and habits of these 

 borers in their earlier stages. " The larvw hatched from the eggs — which are laid by the 

 parent beetle in holes and chinks of the bark — are long, whitish, flesh\- grubs, with the 

 transverse incisions of the body vcr)' deeply marked, so that the rings are very convex or 

 hunched above and below. The body tapi-rs a little behind, and is blunt-pointed. The head 

 is much smaller than the first ring, slightlj' bent downwards, of a horny consistence, and is 

 provided with short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof the insect can bore, as with 



