864 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



The wasp beetle (Clytus arietis), another very common species, 

 undergoes its changes in old dry palings. I once observed, in the 

 month of June (when these insects are in full activity), a great number 

 of dead specimens of this insect sticking in small circular holes in a 

 dry paling, with the head exposed at the mouth of the burrow. I 

 was unable to notice any fact which would enable us to account for 

 this curious circumstance. There are some interesting remarks on 

 the economy of Clytus arcuatus recorded in the Entomol. Mag. vol- i. 

 p. 212., and vol. iv. p. 222. In Laporte and Gory's beautifully illus- 

 trated monograph of this genus, an imago of one of the species, with 

 the elytra and wings not yet developed, is represented as the larva ! 



Linnaeus notices, in his Tour in Lapland (vol. i. p. 233.), that 

 Cerambyx (Monochamus) Siitor, is occasionally infested with a beau- 

 tiful red species of lice (Acarus Coleopterorum). 



The larvae of these insects are long, soft, and fleshy grubs, of a 

 whitish colour, with a scaly head, armed with two powerful horny 

 jaws, and six very minute legs: each of the segments of the abdomen 

 is dorsally provided with a broad rugose tubercle, which evidently 

 assists the insect in progression ; the terminal segment of the body is 

 unarmed. They remain two or three years in this state, changing the 

 skins several times : the imago appearing in a very short time after 

 the assumption of the pupa state. 



The larva of Cerambyx (Hamaticherus) Heros, which is one of the 

 largest European species, is considered by Latreille to have been the 

 Cossus of the ancients, by whom it was esteemed a relishing treat. 

 The larva, which, as well as the pupa and imago, is beautifully figured 

 by Ratzeburg (Forst~I?isecten, pi. xvi.), resides in the oak, occasioning 

 much injury to the timber, by boring large channels in all directions 

 through the trunk of the tree : this is also the case with the musk 

 beetle, the larva of which (Jiff. 4<4'. 5.) is very injurious to young 

 willows. This larva is of a thick form and fleshy consistence ; the 

 head small ; the prothorax large and transverse ; the meso- and 

 meta-thorax very short, the former furnished with a pair of spiracles, 

 and the three thoracic segments having three pairs of very short legs ; 

 each of the eight basal abdominal segments bears a pair of spiracles : 

 these segments are much constricted at the articulations. I^iff. 44. 6. 

 represents the head and three thoracic segments of a larva, closely 

 resembling that of the musk beetle (which I was unable to rear); 

 Jigf. 44. 7. the head and prothorax seen from above; 44. 8. the 



