148 THE ORDER OF COLEOPTERA. 



emerging, in the beetle-form, through round holes about large enough 

 to admit a common knitting needle, and giving the tree the appearance, 

 as Mr. Eiley aptly remarks, of having been peppered with fine shot.* 



TribbXVIIL 



LONG-HOEN^ED WOOD-BOEEES. 

 Lignivora longicornia. Eucerata, Westwood. 



This large and conspicuous tribe of beetles is usually designated by 

 the Latin word Longicornes, meaning long horns, in reference to their 

 most striking character, namely, the great length of their antennae, 

 which, with a very few exceptions, are considerably longer than the 

 head and thorax combined, and frequently longer than the whole body. 

 They are sometimes strictly filiform, but usually setaceous, or tapering. 

 Notwithstanding their great length, they very rarely have more than 

 the normal number of joints, which, in the Coleopterous order of insects, 

 is eleven. The genus Prionus, however, furnishes a remarkable excep- 

 tion in this respect, some of the species having as many as thirty joints 

 in their antennaj. The tarsi are always four jointed, spongy beneath, 

 and the third joint strongly bilobed, characters which readily distin- 

 guish them from the predaceous ground -beetles which also have the an- 

 tennae slender and considerably elongated. 



A few of them have the wing-cases either much shorter, or much nar- 

 rower than the abdomen, but in these instances, the wings are not folded 

 up under them, as in the short-winged Staphylinidse, but lie extended 

 and exposed upon the abdomen. They are strong flyers, but do not 

 readily take to flight, and are, therefore, easily captured, though they 

 run with considerable rapidity, their legs being in harmony with the 

 general elongation of their bodies and their antennne. The thighs are 

 very commonly clavate or enlarged at the end, giving room for an un- 

 usual development of the muscles of locomotion. 



Many of these beetles, when captured, make a squeaking sound, called 

 stridulation, by rapidly moving the prothorax upon the mesothorax. 

 This faculty seems to be possessed by all of the sub-family of Lamiides, 

 and by many of the Cerambycides, but to be absent in the Prionides. 



Many of these insects are known to be nocturnal in their habits, and 

 are sometimes seen flying about our lamps in the evening j but others, 



* This insect has heen described by Mr. Eiley under the specific name caryce; but I can find no suf- 

 ficient grounds for regarding it as distinct from the i-spinosus, of Say. The only positive diffei-ence 

 stated is the absence of denticulations at the tip of the elytra, and these, though very minute, are dis- 

 tinct in the specimens 'which I have examined, of both sexes. The absence of certain details in Mr. 

 Say's description can scarcely be adduced in proof of diircrcnce of .species, since it was eviden tly Mr. 

 Say's rule to practice the greatest brevity in his descriptious, consistent with what he deemed a sufli- 

 cieut identification of the species. 



