COLEOPTERA. 57 



black material in a moist condition, they will develop into beetles 

 about the beginning of April. Fig. 54 is from a photograph of the 

 beetle. 



Ehagium bifasciatum (Fab.) 



This is a very common arboreal species in many parts of the 

 country. In very warm days in July the beetle may be seen flying 

 about amongst young fir woods, or lodging amongst the leaves of 

 young Scots pines. During the summer months it may be found in the 

 early morning, amongst the freshly cut sawdust, in the pit underneath 

 the circular saw, where a portable sawmill is erected in a fir wood. 

 During the winter and spring months the perfect beetles may also be 

 found, together with many specimens of the larvae, in old fir roots, 



Fig. 54. — Rhagium inquisitor Fig. 55.— Rliagiuui bifasoiatniii 



OwUuvdshr). (natural size). 



and more especially in roots where the trees have been blown down. 

 I once found quite a colony in such a place in November, and as the 

 beetles were fully developed, it is possible that they pass the winter 

 in the perfect stage, after changing from the pupal stage in autumn, 

 as so large a colony in one root conld not be accounted for on the 

 lines of hibernation. Another very happy hunting-ground for this 

 species is in dead Scots pines which have been left standing until their 

 condition is simply a mass of dry dust. I found quite a colony of 

 the perfect beetles issuing from trees of this class on May 19, 1905, 

 at Lyham, in Northumberland. After the exit from such trees, the 

 stem shows so many holes that it looks like having been severely 

 shot at with small bullets. As a rule, it cannot be considered an 

 injurious insect, though in Cheshire I once found an oak log consider- 

 ably destroyed by the larvae of this species. 



The perfect beetle (fig. 55) is shining and of a darkish mottled 



