of Buprestide: and Elateride. 183) 
According to Perris, this larva forms broad irregular galleries 
in the interior of the timber, at a depth of from 2 to 5 centimetres. 
The form of these galleries is, in his opinion, as characteristic 
as that of the larva itself, being different from the burrows of 
any of the many other timber-larvee with which he is acquainted. 
He states that the walls are so smooth that they look as if they 
were produced by means of a very sharp instrument *; and as 
this is indeed the only remarkable peculiarity which he mentions 
in these burrows, it would appear as if he looked upon this 
smoothness and evenness as their great distinctive feature. 
But such are the burrows of a great many, if not all, timber- 
larvee, when they are cleared of wood-dust, which, generally 
speaking, is indicative of their being o/d and long left by their 
original inhabitants. There is therefore nothing really charac- 
teristic in this; and I am inclined to think that Perris’s expres- 
sions rather proceeded from some indistinct feeling that the 
appearance of the burrows did not quite agree with that of the 
larvee (supposing the latter to have constructed them). For 
just before, speaking of the outward-bent hooked form of the 
mandibles, he says that he should have thought it a mon- 
strosity if he had not found it in all the individuals he examined 
and thus convinced himself of its being of constant occurrence. 
‘He adds the observation that the larva moves its mandibles 
horizontally, like other. larvee, but that it gnaws the wood not in 
closing them, but in opening themt. 
Here, then, we are placed face to face with the unheard-of 
phenomenon that the mandibles of an articulated animal bite 
and gnaw, not by being approached to one another, but by being 
separated, not by closing, but by opening, not by the action of 
their flexors, but by that of their extensors! We are called 
upon to believe that a larva not only makes way for itself through 
solid timber, but even constructs extensive burrows and galleries 
with extremely smooth walls, lying all the while quite loose 
curled up on its side without support, working in a desultory 
* «Fille s’enfonce dans le bois 4 une profondeur de 2 a 5 centimetres, en 
creusant des galeries larges et irrégulieres dont la forme est aussi carac- 
téristique que celle de la larve méme et comme n’en pratique aucune des 
nombreuses larves xylophages que je connais. Ce sont des cavités qui ont 
en largeur une fois et demi celle de la téte, et pres de trois fois celle du 
corps et guére plus d’un millimétre de hauteur. Leurs parois sont si 
nettement taillées qu’on les dirait fagonnées par un instrument trés- 
tranchant.” {Ann. de la Soc. Ent. de Fr. 2° sér. v. p. 545.) 
+ “Je crus la premiere fois, que c’était une erreur de la nature, une sorte 
de monstruosité, et si je n’avais vu qu’une seule larve, j’aurais certaimement 
signalé avee quelque méfiance une semblable anomale...... Le jeu de ces 
mandibules est horizontal comme dans les autres larves; mais c’est en 
s’écartant et non en se rapprochant qu’elles rongent le bois.” (L. ¢. p. 543.) 
