256 PROTECTION AGAINST INS ROTS. 



The latter with three black hands each, along the suture, in 

 the middle and along the outer margin, of which the middle 

 hand is not always complete ; they are marked with rows of 

 large punctures ; apical declivity not impressed nor toothed. 

 Antennal club flattened oval, blunt at apex, without trace of 

 sutures. 



b. Life -history. 



The season for flight is in March and April, and again in 

 June and July. 



The ? prefers felled trees, provided they are still sufficiently 

 moist, also windfalls, and sometimes stems still in the ground, 

 high stumps or broken trunks. A good 

 deal of care is shown in the selection of 

 breeding places, and the material must 

 be neither too fresh nor too dry. The 

 beetle rarely bores into cleanly barked 

 stems, and is only rarely found in stand- 

 ing healthy trees. The ? bores verti- 

 cally into the tree for an inch or more, 

 constructing one or more brood galleries 

 at the end of her tunnel, usually at 

 right-angles to the entrance burrow, 

 and alwavs transversely to the long axis ; 

 in the floor and roof of these galleries 

 she gnaws small cylindrical holes vertically into the wood for 

 the reception of the eggs, and after oviposition, she blocks 

 these holes with wood-dust, forming partitions between the 

 secondary and primary galleries. There are generally from 

 30 to 50 eggs/ 



The larvae appear in May, and those of the second brood in 

 July and August. They pupate in a cocoon of particles of 

 wood in July, and again in August and September. 



The imagos appear about the middle of July, and leave 

 their birthplace through the old mother-gallery, after break- 

 ing through the partition, which remains intact up to that 

 time. They at once set to work to produce a fresh brood. 

 The species is widely distributed throughout Europe, but is 

 confined in Great Britain to a few localities in the Tay and 



