102 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



wide behind; it is somewhat uneven, and has a little sharp 

 projecting point on each side of the base. The antennae have 

 the third and the three following joints abruptly thickened at 

 the extremity, giving them the knotty appearance indicated by 

 the generical name Desniocenis, which signifies knotty horn. 

 The larvae live in the lower part of the stems of the elder, and 

 devour the pith; they have hitherto escaped my researches, 

 but I have found the beetles in the burrows made by them. 



The bark of the pitch-pine is often extensively loosened by 

 the grubs of Leptiu-ians at work beneath it, in consequence of 

 which it falls off' in large flakes, and the tree perishes. These 

 grubs live between the bark and the wood, often in great num- 

 bers together, and, when they are about to become pupae, each 

 one surrounds itself with an oval ring of woody fibres, within 

 which it undergoes its transformations. The beetle is matured 

 before winter, but does not leave the tree until spring. It is 

 the ribbed Rhagium, or Rhagium Uneatum* so named because 

 it has three elevated longitudinal lines or ribs on each wing- 

 cover ; and it measures from four and a half to seven tenths of 

 an inch in length. The head and thorax are gray, striped with 

 black, and thickly punctured; the antennae are about as long 

 as the two forenamed parts of the body together; the thorax 

 is narrow, cylindrical before and behind, and swelled out in 

 the middle by a large pointed wart or tubercle on each side ; 

 the wing-covers are wide at the shoulders, gradually taper 

 behind, and are slightly convex above ; they are coarsely punc- 

 tured between the smooth elevated lines, and are variegated 

 with reddish ash-color and black, the latter forming two irregu- 

 lar transverse bands; the under side of the body, and the legs, 

 are variegated with dull red, gray, and black. The gray por- 

 tions on this beetle are occasioned by very short hairs, forming 

 a close kind of nap, which is easily rubbed off'. 



The Buprestians and the Capricorn-beetles seem evidently 

 allied in their habits, both being borers during the greater part 

 of their lives, and living in the trunks and limbs of trees, to 

 which they are more or less injurious in proportion to their 



* Stenocorut lineatus of Olivier. 



