04 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 
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Capricorn Beetles, or Long-horned Beetles (Cerambicine). 
These Beetles are so called on account of their long feel- 
ers (antenne), which resemble those of a mountain goat, and 
which, in some species, are longer than their body. They 
may also be recognized by their hard, horny skin, and by 
the four joints on each foot. 
Their body is cylindrical; their head short, broad, and 
bent downward, provided with strong jaws, as also with 
long, bristle-shaped antenne ; their thorax is generally cyl- 
indrical, but, in some species, flat, and armed with thorns 
on both sides; it emits a sound which is effected by friction, 
that is, by moving it continually up and down, like a per- 
son rocking in a rocking-chair. On this account the Ger- 
mans call them “ fiddlers.” 
These Beetles, particularly those of the Southern States 
and of the tropics, are very handsome, and usually attract 
a good deal of attention by their elegant forms and fine 
colors. But their grubs are ugly, and none of them of a 
handsome color. They live always under the bark, or in 
the interior of the trunks of trees, where they dig serpentine 
passages, converting the wood into a mealy dust with which 
they stop up the entrance to their abode. Here they live, 
feeding continually on the green wood, for two or three 
years, until they are ready to metamorphose themselves into 
cocoons, from which they afterward issue as perfect Beetles. 
The numerous species of Capricorn Beetles differ from 
one another in color, in the length of their antennz, and 
also in respect to their size. The Clytus pictus, for instance 
(Fig. 13), is a North American species, and is only a few 
lines long, while the Prionus Hayesii, a Capricorn Beetle of 
Western Africa, is nearly five inches long and one inch 
broad. Its antenne measure seven inches, and its legs are 
four inches long. This gigantic insect is of a dark brown 
color, and has many thorns upon the thorax. 
