January 27 



it goes along until it is full grown and changes into 

 a pupa and eventually into a perfect beetle, when it 

 gnaws its way out, leaving a small round hole at the 

 end of the tunnel. 



An allied species does grievous damage to elm 

 timber ; whole forests are sometimes destroyed by 

 this apparently insignificant insect. 



The beetle bores into the tree-stem, makes a central 

 gallery, and from it she bores small side galleries with 

 wonderful regularity side by side, and at the end of 

 each of these alleys she lays an egg ; and when the 

 larvae are hatched they gnaw the wood in a straight 

 line, always enlarging the gallery as they themselves 

 grow bigger, so that the result upon the wood is a 

 curiously symmetrical pattern. 



Other beetles make curved galleries of intricate 

 design, of which I have several specimens resembling 

 delicate wood-carvings. 



