328 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



mottled \\\\\\ cream white. Ptychodes viUatun is slender, about an inch long, with 

 very long antenna? and legs, and is of a rich Ijrown ground color, with sutural and 

 marginal strijies of white. Both the above-mentioned species are found in the south- 

 western United States. In Europe a closely allied longicorn. Lamia textor, bores, in 

 its larval state, in willow twigs. The beetle is from 1 to l.'io inches long and nearlv 

 half as broad, of a dark brown color, with fine yellowish pubescence, through which 

 glimmer little black points ; its antennte are about tvvo-tliirds as long as its body. 



Pseiiocerits svpernotutus is a beetle only about 0.25 of an inch long, whose larva bores 

 in the twigs of different kinds of currants. Its front coxal cavities are angulated, its 

 prothorax is constricted behind and the liumeral angles are distinct. The ground color 

 of the beetle is black, the prothorax and margins of the elytra are jiale brown, and 

 there are a few white or gray spots on the elytra. Mr. William Saunders has well 

 described the life-history of this species as follows: "Early in June the parent beetle 

 of the native currant borer deposits her eggs upon the currant stalks, where they soon 

 hatch into tiny grubs, which burrow into the heart of the stem and, feeding on its pith, 

 reach full growth before the close of the season. They are footless grulis, which 

 measure when full grown about half an inch in length. The iiead is scarcely half as 

 broad as the body, is of a dark lirown color, with black jaws. The Ixxly is whitish 

 with some Virown dots along each side, and is slightly clothed with very tine short 

 hairs. When full grown and about to cli.ange to a chrysalis, the larva gnaws a channel 

 through the ^\•(_1ody fibre to tlie outer bark, so that wlien changed to a beetle it can 

 make its escajie by merely ru]ituring the bark. The ea^■ity thus made is filled with 

 little chips to ])revent the liark from being lu'enuiturely broken, and below this stuffing 

 the insect constructs a becl of short woody fibres, packing the passage below with a 

 finer material resembling sawdust. Within this enclosure, which is about half an inch 

 in length, the Larva changes to a chrysalis and reposes until the fully formed beetle is 

 ready to emerge; then, gradually drawing away the obstacles to its egress, it finds its 

 way to the end of the ]iassage, and gnawing a small round hole through the bark, 

 effects its escajie." As the larvae remain in the twigs during the \\inter, an easy mode 

 of desti'oying these longicorns is to break off the dead twigs in early spring and 



burn them. 



Dorcadion is a well-represented genus in south- 

 ern Euro))e. The humeral angles are not prominent, 

 and wings ai-e alisent ; the palpi are slender, the 

 support of tlie laliium distinctly visible, the an- 

 tennaj not surpassing the body in length, and the 

 jjrothorax with a s])ine on each side. I), crux is 

 velvety black, with silvery white markings in a 

 cruciform arrangement as seen in tlie figure. 



Turning our attention now fi-om the Lamiinw 

 to the Cerambycinre, we have to deal with longi- 

 corns whicli have marginless prothorax, jialjii never 

 at'utely pointed, and the anterior tibia? without 

 grooves on the inner side. 



The genus Leptura and some genera associated 

 W'ith it have the head distinctly narrowed behind 

 the eyes to form a sort of neck ; their front coxa? are conical ; their eyes ai'c nearly 

 or quite round, not, as in many Cerambycida', more or less enveloping the base of the 



Fig. 304. — (I, Chjtiis nrhl'ts; h, A'a-ytlalis 

 major i c, Dorcadimi crux. 



