COLEOrTERA. 83 



or drawn in like the joints of a telescope, by means of which 

 they convey, their eggs into the holes and chinks of the bark of 

 plants. 



The larvae hatched from these eggs are long, whitish, ileshy 

 grubs, with the transverse incisions of the body very deeply 

 marked, so that the rings are very convex or hunched both 

 above and below. The body tapers a little behind, and is 

 blunt-pointed. The head is much smaller than the first ring, 

 slightly bent downwards, of a horny consistence, and is pro- 

 vided with short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof 

 the insect can bore, as with a centre-bit, a cylindrical passage 

 through the most solid wood. Some of these borers have sbc 

 very small legs, namely, one pair under each of the first three 

 rings ; but most of them want even these short and imperfect 

 limbs, and move through their burrows by the alternate exten- 

 sion and contraction of their bodies, on each or on most of the 

 rings of which, both above and below, there is an oval space 

 covered with little elevations, somewhat like the teeth of a fine 

 rasp ; and these little oval rasps, which are designed to aid the 

 grubs in their motions, fully make up to them the want of 

 proper feet. Some of these borers always keep one end of 

 their burrows open, out of which, from time to time, they cast 

 their chips, resembling coarse sawdust; others, as fast as they 

 proceed, fill up the passages behind them with their castings, 

 well known here by the name of powder-post. These borers 

 live from one year to three, or perhaps more years before they 

 come to their growth. They undergo thek transformations at 

 the furthest extremity of their burrows, many of them pre- 

 viously gnawing a passage through the wood to the inside of 

 the bark, for their future escape. The pupa is at first soft and 

 whitish, and it exhibits aU the parts of the future beetle under 

 a filmy veil which inwraps every limb. The wings and legs 

 are folded upon the breast, the long antennsB are turned back 

 against the sides of the body, and then bent forwards between 

 the legs. When the beetle has thrown off its pupa-skin, it 

 gnaws away the thin coat of bark that covers the mouth of 

 its burrow, and comes out of its dark and confined retreat, to 

 breathe the fresh air, and to enjoy for the first time the pleasure 



