82 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



The most powerful and destructive of the wood-eating 

 insects are the grubs of the long-horned or Capricorn-beetles 

 (Cerambycid.e), called borers by way of distinction. There 

 are many kinds of borers which do not belong to this tiibe. 

 Some of them have already been described, and others will be 

 mentioned under the orders to which they belong. Those now 

 under consideration differ much from each other in their habits. 

 Some live altogether in the trunks of trees, others in the limbs ; 

 some devour the wood, others the pith ; some are found only 

 in shrubs, some in the stems of herbaceous plants, and others 

 are confined to roots. Certain kinds are limited to plants of 

 one species, others live indiscriminately upon several plants of 

 one natural family ; but the same kind of borer is not known 

 to inhabit plants differing essentially from each other in their 

 natural characters. As might be expected from these circum- 

 stances, the beetles produced from these borers are of many 

 different kinds. Nearly one hundred species have been found 

 in Massachusetts, and probably many more remain to be dis- 

 covered. The Capricorn-beetles agree in the following respects. 

 The antenna? are long and tapering, and generajlly curved like 

 the horns of a goat, which is the origin of the name above 

 given to these beetles. The body is oblong, approaching to a 

 cylindrical form, a little flattened above, and tapering some- 

 what behind. The head is short, and armed with powerful 

 jaws. The thorax is either square, barrel-shaped, or naiTowed 

 before ; and is not so wide behind as the wing-covers. The 

 legs are long; the thighs thickened in the middle; the feet 

 four-jointed, not formed for rapid motion, but for standing 

 securely, being broad and cushioned beneath, with the third 

 joint deeply notched. Most of these beetles remain upon trees 

 and shrubs during the daytime, but fly abroad at night. Some 

 of them, however, fly by day, and may be found on flowers, 

 feeding on the pollen and the blossoms. . When annoyed or 

 taken into the hands, they make a squeaking sound by rubbing 

 the joints of the thorax and abdomen together. The females 

 are generally larger and more robust than the males, and have 

 rather shorter antenna. Moreover they are provided with a 

 jointed tube at the end of the body, capable of being extended 



