244 Bugs, Butterflies, and Beetles 



them on the branches of the trees, where they move 

 very slowly, and if you frighten them they play 

 possum, folding up their legs, letting go all hold 

 and falling to the ground. But when they want to 

 fly, they are experts at it. The 3^oung of the 

 Dickies are sawdust eaters; they bore into the log 

 or tree trunk, chew up the wood and swallow the 

 sawdust. Fig. 221 shows the larvse of some wood- 

 boring beetles that I found eating a dry pine stick 

 which I was whittling. Very dry food, one would 

 think, but the little grub seemed to grow fat on it. 

 The hickory borer is of a dull brassy color, but 

 a bright copper underneath and it is thickly en- 

 graved with numerous lines, besides which it has 

 some black spots which stick up on its wing covers 

 and the ends of the wings separate into two points. 

 The Dicky-bugs or beetles, as they would be prop- 

 erly called, damage wood of different trees. One 

 is the Hickory Dick and then there is the Big 

 Pine Dick; all of the tribes are injurious and do 

 a lot of damage. They bore into the pine logs of 

 which my log house is built. Then comes the 

 Ichneimion fly, with a very long ovapositor {egg 

 putter) which she pokes down into the worm hole 

 in the log and shoots her eggs into the body of the 



