SHOET-HOENED WOOD-BOEEES. 145 



lobed. Small insects, of au oblong linear form, with puncto-striate 

 elytra, and usually of a shining black or brown color. They form a 

 connecting link between the CurculionidaB and the Scolytidae, being 

 mostly sub-cortical and lignivorous in their habits. The five following 

 genera are represented in the N. A. fauna: Cossonus, Clair., 6 species; 

 lihyncolus, Creutz, 7 species ; Dryojythorus, Schupp, 1 species ; Lymantis, 

 Gyll., 1 species, and PhlceophaguSj Sch., 1 species. 



Teibe XVII. 



SHOET-HOENED WOOD-BOEEES. 

 Lignivora brevicornia. Xylophaga, Latreille. 



This tribe is composed of small beetles of a short and nearly cylindri- 

 cal form, and of a brown or blackish color. The antennae are very short, 

 often not much longer than the head, slightly elbowed, and always ter- 

 minating in a knob. In many species the abdomen is truncated, or cut 

 off obli<iuely behind, and terminated with a coronet of short spines. 

 The larvfe are scarcely distinguishable from those of the Curculionidae, 

 being soft, white, footless grubs, usually lying in a curved position. 

 They differ, however, from the great majority of the larvae of the Cur- 

 cuHos in their wood-boring habits. Indeed, they are pre-eminently the 

 wood-borers of the whole order of Coleoptera, no other tribe vying with 

 them in this respect except the Long-borned borers, to be hereafter de- 

 scribed. Though small in size, rarely exceeding a quarter of an inch in 

 length, and often less than half that length, they are tolerably numer- 

 ous in species, and often excessively abundant in individuals. They in- 

 habit various kinds of trees, but mostly the pines, which they have been 

 known to damage considerably in this country, whilst in some parts of 

 Europe they have destroyed whole forests by their enormous multipli- 

 cation. They are comprised in the single family of Scolytidaj. 



Family LIX. SCOLYTID^. 



Named from the genus ScolytuSj Geoff., derived from the Greek ska- 

 lupto — to denude or lacerate. 



—19 



