52 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



row, nearly cylindrical, and not so firm and hard as in the Ela- 

 ters. The feet are five-jointed, long, and slender. 



The larvae of Lymexylon and Hyleccetus are very odd-looking, 

 long, and slender grubs. The head is small ; the first ring is very 

 much hunched ; and on the top of the last ring there is a fleshy 

 appendage, resembhng a leaf in Lymexylon, and like a straight 

 horn in Hyleccetus. They have six short legs near the head. 

 These grubs inhabit oak-trees, and make long cylindrical burrows 

 in the solid wood. They are also found in some other kinds of 

 trees. 



Only a few native insects of this family are known to me, and 

 these fortunately seem to be rare in New England. I shall de- 

 scribe only two of them. The first was obtained by beating the 

 limbs of some forest-tree. It may be called Lymexylon sericeum, 

 the silky timber-beetle. It is of a chestnut-brown color above, 

 and covered with very short shining yellowish hairs, which give it 

 a silky lustre. The head is bowed down beneath the forepart of 

 the thorax ; the eyes are very large, and almost meet above and 

 below ; the antennae are brownish red, widened and compressed 

 from the fourth to the last joint inclusive ; the thorax is longer 

 than wide, rounded before, convex above, and deeply indented on 

 each side of the base ; the wing-covers are convex, gradually 

 taper behind, and do not cover the tip of the abdomen ; the under- 

 side of the body, and the legs, are brownish red. Its length is from 

 four to six tenths of an inch. This insect was unknown to Mr. 

 Say, and does not seem to have been described before. 



The generical name Hyleccetus, given to some insects of this 

 family^ means a sleeper in the woods, or one who makes his bed 

 in the forest. We have one hitherto undescribed species, which 

 may be called Hyleccetus Jlmericanus, the American timber-bee- 

 tle. Its head, thorax, abdomen, and legs are liglit brownish red ; 

 the wing-covers, except at the base where they are also red, and 

 the breast, between the middle and hindmost legs, are black. The 

 head is not bowed down under the forepart of the thorax ; the 

 eyes are small and black, and on the middle of the forehead there 

 is one small reddish eyelet, a character unusual among beetles, 

 very few of which have eyelets ; the antennas resemble those of 

 Lymexylon sericeum, but are shorter ; the thorax is nearly square, 



