THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 337 



being rendered more conspicuous. At the end of ten or 

 fifteen days, according to the temperature, the egg-shell is 

 opened by the contained caterpillar, and the little creature 

 destined to commit such havoc makes its ap})earance as a 

 slender maggot, partially and thinly covered with hairs : 

 these hairs, however, are scarcely noticeable, unless the 

 newly-born caterpillar be examined with a lens. The head 

 and 2nd segment are brown, shining and very hard ; the 

 latter is covered above by a corneous plate, and both are 

 remarkably large fur the size of the larva, carrying to excess 

 that law of Nature which ordains that the heads of all young 

 animals should be large in proportion to the body : the 2nd 

 segment in this instance partakes of the same character. No 

 sooner has the infant caterpillar escaped from its first prison 

 than it seeks to immure itself in another, and now for a 

 period of at least three whole years. It seems early gifted 

 with gnawing propensities, for it may be seen entering the 

 bark through a little hole it has drilled, not thicker than the 

 slenderest wire ; and this is done within ten hours of its 

 making a first appearance on the stage of life. The aperture 

 through which it has passed would inevitably escape even 

 the piercing eye of an entomologist, were not the spot 

 marked by a small collection of the finest possible sawdust, 

 which accumulates on the surface as the juvenile carpenter 

 works his way into the interior. We now entirely lose sight 

 of the hero of owr narrative, and only find him again in after 

 months, or after years, by stripping off the bark, or by 

 digging into the solid wood of an infested tree. Mr. Douglas, 

 so favourably known by his delightful ' World of Insects,' 

 gives a detailed narrative of an investigation he conducted 

 with his own hands and eyes. In this instance it was an 

 elm — a hedgerow elm — that had been so weakened by the 

 doings of the carpenters that a high wind had blown it 

 down, and there lay the giant slain by a maggot. 



"Removing a portion of the bark," says Mr. Douglas, 

 " I found nine caterpillars between it and the wood of the 

 tree. Anxious to obtain as many as possible, I sent for a 

 saw, and had the mined portion of the tree taken off' and 

 brought home. The steuj thus cut measured one way 15 

 inches in diameter, and the other way 23 inches in diameter, 

 both measurements taken at the bottom of my block, for the 



