LONG-HORNED WOOD-BORERS. 149 



especially the Lepturides, are found upon flowers in the day time, and 

 in the full light of the sun. 



The larvii* are oblong, straight, moderately firm, sordid or yellowish- 

 white grubs, chiefly distinguished by the depth of the incisions between 

 the segments of the body, giving to them a strongly crenulated or 

 wrinkled appearance. They are usually a little tapering from before 

 backward, the first or prothoracic segment being larger than the others, 

 but never excessively developed as in some of the wood-boring larvie of 

 the liuprestidiu. 



The head is small and more or less sunken in the prothorax, but the 

 larvte of the Lepturides are exceptional in this respect, their heads being 

 large and flattened and as broad as the pro-thorax. 



The majority have six very small feet, which, in some, are scarcely 

 more than rudimental, and the larvne of the subfamily of Lamiides are 

 distinguished from nearly all the others by being wholly footless — the 

 place of feet being supplied by little callosities. 



These larv;p, together with those of the short-horned tribe last de- 

 scribed, constitute pre-eminently the wood-borers of the Coleopterous 

 order. Though vastly surpassing the former in size and in the number 

 of species, they would seem to be much inferior to them in the number 

 of individuals, and, therefore, though a few of them have been very in- 

 jurious to cultivated or ornamental trees, they have never been known 

 to produce such extensive destruction of timber as has been eifected by 

 the hirv;e of the diminutive but x^rolific Scolytidte. A remarkable ex- 

 ception, however, to this statement occurred a number of years ago, in 

 the almost total destruction of the locust tree (Rohinia pseudacacia ) 

 throughout all the l!^ortheru States, by the larvie of the Locust-borer, 

 Chjtiis robinicCj of Forster. This destruction did not occur in all places 

 at the same time, but was extended mostly over the ten years between 

 1855 and 18(55. 



Upwards of 8000 species of longicorn beetles are known to exist in 

 European cabinets. The Smithsonian catalogue of the year 1853 con- 

 tains the names of 431 N. American species. In Dr. LeConte's New 

 Species of N. A. Coleoptera, published in 1873, eighty-nine additional 

 species are described, and in the intervening twenty years a considerable 

 number of N. A. species had been described by Dr. LeConte and others, 

 both in this country and in Europe. 



Some of the characters in the following tables may recpiire explana- 

 tion. It will be seen that some of the largest Lamiides are distinguished 

 by a cicatrix or scar at the end of the first joint of the antennae. In 

 these species the pedicel, or stout basal joint, appears as if cut oft" ob- 

 liijuely at the end, and this sloping part is enclosed by a little ridge or 

 carina, and its surface differs from that of the surrounding parts by be- 



