92 C L E P T E R A . 



resemble in fonn the grubs of some of the small Scara- 

 bseians. 



The shagbark or walnut tree is sometimes infested by the 

 grabs of the red-shouldered Apate, or Apate hasiUaris of 

 Say, an insect of this family. The grabs bore diametrically 

 thi-ough the tranks of the walnut to the very h6art, and 

 undergo their transformations in the bottom of their l)ur- 

 rows. Several trees have fallen under my observation wliich 

 have been entirely killed by these insects. The beetles are 

 of a deep black color, and are jumctured all over. The 

 thorax is very convex and rough before ; the wing-covers 

 are not excavated at the tip, but they slope downwards verv 

 suddenly behind, as if ol)li(juely cut off, the outer edge of 

 the cut portion is armed with three little teeth on each Aving- 

 cover, and on the base or shoulders there is a large red spot. 

 This insect measures one fifth of an inch or more in length. 



The most powei-hd and destructive of the wood-eating 

 insects are the grubs of the long-horned or Capricorn-beetles 

 (Ceramhyc'ID^), called borers by way of distinction. There 

 are manv kinds of borers which do not belono; to this tribe. 

 Some of them have already been described, and others will 

 be mentioned under the orders to which they belong. Those 

 now under consideration differ much from each other in their 

 habits. Some live altogether in the trunks of trees, others 

 in the limbs ; some devour the wood, others the pith ; some 

 are found only in shrubs, some in the stems of herbaceous 

 plants, and others are confined to roots. Certain kinds are 

 limited to ])lants of one species, others live indiscriminately 

 upon sevei'al plants of one natural family ; but the same 

 kind of l)orer is not known to inhabit plants differing essen- 

 tially from each other in their natural characters. As might 

 be expected from these circumstances, the beetles produced 

 from these borers are of many different kinds. Nearly one 

 hundred species have been foiind in Massachusetts, and 

 p'.'obably many more remain to be discovered. 



The Capricorn-beetles agree in the following respects. 



