THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 37 



difficult task, for the wood must be chopped away very carefully. 

 Moreover, it is hard as well as difficult work, for the grub does 

 not always — indeed, very rarely — follow a straight course, but 

 crosses almost from one side to the other; sometimes works 

 backwards towards its original starting point, and then down 

 again, thus making three distinct tracks in a comparatively short 

 distance. Tlie greater portions of these tracks are filled up with 

 the castings ; but there are intervals where the tracks are hollow, 

 and when 1 first met one of these I made sure I had come to 

 the end ; but no, I had to go much farther, with only in one 

 instance a successful result. In all the others— and these were I 

 suppose nearly a couple of dozen — I cannot say I lost the tracks, 

 but I certainly could find neither grub nor beetle. Being 

 anxious to secure specimens of the beetle as well as its larvae in 

 the wood, I took every precaution in following the tracks, and 

 the above result shows how impossible it is to ensure success. 

 Even my one successful result was almost an accident, for, after 

 chopping away the wood until I thought it most unlikely there 

 could be anything left in the small remaining piece, and seeing 

 no sign of a track, I split it carefully down the middle, when I 

 was surprised and delighted to see a fine female specimen 

 of Bimia bicolor. If one had the time and inclination he could 

 no doubt get a large number of both the larva and beetle — in 

 fact, I afterwards saw a large number of the circular signs, but 

 having satisfied myself of the genus and species I did not 

 trouble further. The beetle itself is much more easily secured 

 by looking for it under the trees during the months in which it 

 emerges — say August and September. What sur|)rised me as 

 much as anything was the circumstance of the grub working its 

 way down green wood absolutely running with sap, and being 

 able to make for itself, when full grown and preparing for its 

 change into the pupa state, a chamber which is absolutely dry 

 and impervious to moisture. It is also a curious thing that during 

 the whole of its career it does not, as do other larvse I have taken, 

 make any small holes to the surface — indeed, it seems impossible 

 for it to obtain any air from the time it enters until it emerges as a 

 beetle. It is, or at least it used to be, a fairly plentiful beetle 

 around Melbourne, for during the past years I have often taken 

 it during the months previously mentioned, and here there is no 

 question that it breeds in the yellow box. 



Our attention was next directed to the Buloke, Casuarina 

 (/lauca, for in these I was aware that the beautiful large yellow 

 and blue Buprestid beetle, Sligmodera suturalis, should be 

 found. There were numbers of the trees round about, many of 

 them having been cut down in this and past dry years to enable 

 the stock to feed on the leaves, so that we had opportunities of 

 testing them in life and various stages of decay. It is a tough 



