166 



Insect Ravages in Woodlands. 



stored. We here present a cut of the larva of the great Capricorn 

 beetle ; that which sometimes proves destructive to the oak, and 

 that causes the damages shown in the last preceding engraving. 



89. Larva of the Cerambyx heros. 



These insects require three years for their transformations, and do 

 not usually attack the timber until it has passed its stage of full 

 maturity and has begun to decline, but while the wood is still hard 

 and sound. The Capricorn beetles to which this insect belongs, are 

 among the most destructive of wood-borers ; some inhabiting the 

 trunks of trees, and some only the limbs. There are other insects 

 that devour the pith or the roots, and some are found only in 

 herbaceous plants. 



663. The insects that burrow under the bark, or that mine into 

 the wood, are sometimes very systematic in their operations, and 

 this symmetry may all be due to the work of one insect, that de- 

 posits her eggs at equal intervals along the burrow. These, upon 

 hatching into larvae, eat their way from the main burrow, sometimes 

 to but a short distance, and without enlargement at the end, and at 



90. Cross-section showing the Burrows of the Bostrichus 

 lineatua. 



other times widening as they gain in size, till they reach their limit 

 of growth, and then, after completing their transformations, they 



