50 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



one occasion this great naturalist was consulted by the King 

 of Sweden upon the cause of the decay and destruction of 

 the ship-timber in the royal dock-yards, and, having traced it 

 to the depredations of insects, and ascertained the history of 

 the depredators, by directing the timber to be sunk under 

 water during the season when these insects made their ap- 

 pearance in the winged state, and were busied in laying their 

 eggs, he effectually secured it from future attacks. The name 

 of these insects is Lymexylon navale, the naval timber-destroyer. 

 They have since increased to an alarming extent in some of 

 the dockyards of France, and in one of them, at least, have 

 become very injurious, wholly in consequence of the neglect 

 of seasonable advice given by a naval officer, who was also 

 an entomologist, and pointed out the source of the injury, 

 together with the remedy to be applied. 



These destructive insects belong to a family called Lymexyl- 

 iD^, which may be rendered timber-beetles. They cannot be 

 far removed from the Buprestians and the spring-beetles in a 

 natural arrangement. From the latter, however, the insects of 

 this small group are distinguished by having the head broad 

 before, narrowed behind, and not sunk into the thorax; they 

 have not the breast-spine of the Elaters, and their legs are 

 close together, and not separated from each other by a broad 

 breast-bone as in the Buprestians; and the hip-joints are long, 

 and not sunk into the breast- In the principal insects of this 

 family the antennsB are short, and, from the third joint, flat- 

 tened, widened, and saw-toothed on the inside; and the jaw- 

 feelers of the males have a singular fringed piece attached to 

 them. The body is long, narrow, nearly cylindrical, and not 

 so firm and hard as in the Elaters. The feet are five-jointed, 

 long, and slender. 



The larvae of Lymexylon and Hylecce.tus are very odd-looking, 

 long, and slender grubs. The head is small; the first ring is 



may not be amiss to mention here. Linnaeus was the first to point out the 

 advantages to bo derived from employing the Arundo arcnaria, or beach-grass, 

 in fixing the sands of the shore, and thereby preventing the encroachments of 

 the sea. The Dutch have long availed themselves of his suggestion, and its 

 utility has been tested to some extent in Massachusetts. 



