COLEOPTERA. — LONGICORNES. 357 



remarkable peculiarity of the respiratory organs of Prionus, &c. 

 (Anaf. CoUopt. p. 217. t. 21. bis. f. 1.) 



The larvEe reside in the interior of trees, or beneath the bark : they 

 are provided witli six scaly articulated legs, but so minute as to be 

 completely unfitted for locomotion, their movements being performed 

 by the assistance of a number of fleshy tubercles along the body, 

 capable of protrusion, and which are pressed against the sides of their 

 retreats, the segments of the body being by degrees thrust forward ; 

 the body is soft and fleshy, of a dirty white colour, having the 

 anterior segments broadest, with the head of moderate size, flat, broad, 

 scaly, and provided with strong horny jaws ; a pair of fleshy maxilla;, 

 and labium not porrected, and very short conical palpi ; the antennae 

 are very minute, and 4-jointed, the joints being retractile within 

 each other ; and there are three or more ocular tubercles on each side 

 behind the antenna;. From the habit of these insects in burrowing 

 into the very heart of solid timber, there can be no doubt that the 

 marvellous accounts which we constantly meet with in the journals of 

 the discovery of insects, in cutting up logs of wood (especially foreign 

 timber), relate to the larvae, or perfect states, of these insects ; and it 

 is owing to the same circumstance that our English catalogues have 

 been swelled by the introduction of numerous species, which have, 

 indeed, been captured alive in this country, but which have no legi- 

 timate claim to be regarded as natives, having been evidently pro- 

 duced from larva? imported in timber from abroad. Such, for instance, 

 is the Lamia dentator Fabr., described and figured by the late A. H. 

 Haworth in the Trans, of the Old Entomol. Soc. of London, vol. i. 

 Indeed, the late Mr. Beck, who held a situation in the London 

 Docks, made a very extensive and beautiful collection of these exotic 

 species, captured alive. 



From the large size of many of these larvae and the long period 

 during which they remain in that state, it may easily be conceived 

 that they do mucli damage to trees, boring very deeply, and 

 cutting channels into them. A ^g\v species appear to subsist in the 

 larva state upon the roots of plants. Another peculiarity resulting 

 from their lignivorous habits is exhibited in their geographical 

 distribution ; the tropical and thickly wooded districts of South 

 America possessing a far greater number of species (and these, 

 too, of the largest size) than are to be found in corresj)onding 

 latitudes in Africa ; the speedy decay of vegetable matter requiring 



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