COLEOPTERA. 39 



large and broad, especially in the males ; the thorax is short, and 

 as wide as the abdomen ; the antennae are rather long, elbowed or 

 bent in the middle, and composed of ten joints, the last three or 

 four of which are broad, leaf-hke, and project on the inside, giv- 

 ing to this part of the antennae a resemblance to the end of a key ; 

 the upper jaws are usually much longer in the males than in the 

 females, but even those of the latter extend ccnsiderably beyond 

 the mouth ; each of the under-jaws is provided with a long hairy 

 pencil or brush, which can be seen projecting beyond the mouth 

 between the feelers ; and the under-lip has two shorter pencils of 

 the same kind ; the fore-legs are oftentimes longer than the 

 others, with the outer edge of the shanks notched into teeth ; the 

 feet are five-jointed, and the nails are entire and equal. These 

 beetles fly abroad during the nighi, and frequently enter houses at 

 that time, somewhat to the alarm of the occupants ; but they are 

 not venomous, and never attempt to bite without provocation. 

 They pass the day on the trunks of trees, and live upon the sap, 

 for procuring which the brushes of their jaws and lip seem to be 

 designed. They are said also occasionally to bite and seize cater- 

 pillars and other soft-bodied insects, for the purpose of sucking 

 out their juices. They lay their eggs in crevices of the bark of 

 trees, especially near the roots, where they may sometimes be 

 seen thus employed. The larvae hatched from these eggs resem- 

 ble the grubs of the Scarabaeians in color and form, but they are 

 smoother, or not so much wrinkled. The grubs of the large 

 kinds are said to be six years in coming to their growth, living all 

 this time in the trunks and roots of trees, boring into the solid 

 wood, and reducing it to a substance resembling very coarse saw- 

 dust ; and the injury thus caused by them is frequently very con- 

 siderable. When they have arrived at their full size, they enclose 

 themselves in egg-shaped pods, composed of gnawed particles of 

 wood and bark stuck together and lined with a kind of glue ; 

 within these pods they are transformed to pupae, of a yellowish- 

 white color, having the body and all the limbs of the future beetle 

 encased in a whitish film, which being thrown off in due time, the 

 insects appear in the beetle form, burst the walls of their prison, 

 crawl through the passages the larvae had gnawed, and come forth 

 on the outside of the trees. 



