166 Mr. F. G. Smith on the Habits of 



method I describe is very useful, and with care quite 

 satisfactory. The chief thing to guard against is empty 

 cavities which encourage mildew. 



I secured and reared at this time several of the more 

 common species, and at a place near the South Coast I first 

 made acquaintance with A senium striatum. 



Emerging from a Scotch fir wood which I had been 

 working for some hours, and feeling tired, I sat down on 

 one of a great number of stumps of fir-trees which had 

 been cut down three or four years previously. 



The tops of the stumps rose several iuches above the 

 roots. I immediately noticed a number of distinctly oval 

 and clean-cut holes oh the table-like surface of the stump 

 and concluded that they were the work of a Longicorn 

 unknown to me. 



While examining these holes I noticed a new hole 

 actually beginning to form, and through it a mandible 

 of a beetle appeared. With my knife I enlarged the hole 

 until the boring itself was laid open to view. The beetle 

 however had vanished down its burrow. I therefore 

 brought a small axe into play. I soon found however 

 that the stump was perfectly sound and almost as hard as 

 my axe ; added to which, the roots radiating in all direc- 

 tions made it impossible to split off large pieces. How- 

 ever, after about an hour's hard work I came in sight of 

 the beetle, but not of the bottom of its hole, for it seemed 

 to be able to retreat indefinitely. I at last laid down my 

 axe and sticking a pin into the end of a thin twig hooked 

 the beetle out minus two legs. This was my first Asemum 

 striatum taken from the bottom of its gallery thirteen or 

 fourteen inches long excavated in solid Scotch fir. This 

 concluded my day's work, but I revisited the spot next day, 

 and after investigation I found that most of the stumps 

 were covered with holes almost all of which were quite 

 recent, and I also discovered that if I approached very 

 cautiously I could see the heads of the beetles at the 

 mouths of their burrows ; in many cases they were widen- 

 ing them to the required size of exit. In some stumps I 

 thus observed as many as twenty beetles at once. But 

 to secure them was quite a different matter; for as soon 

 as I touched a stump every beetle disappeared down its 

 hole not to appear again for an hour or so. I spent 

 several days carefully investigating the situation ; during 

 which time I was only successful in securing about 



