COLEOPTERA: CERAMBYCID^E. 431 



single pair may have six thousand descendants 

 in a single year. 



The Rice Weevil, C. oryz(Z y Linn, is about 

 one tenth of an inch long, with two red spots 

 on each wing-cover. It not only attacks rice, 

 but wheat and Indian corn. In the Southern 

 States it is called Black Weevil. 



CERAMBYCID^K, Leach, OR CAPRICORN-BEETLE FAMILY. 

 This Family comprises beetles which have the anten- 

 nae very long, tapering, and generally curved like the 

 horns of a goat. When caught, they make a squeaking 

 noise by rubbing the joints of the thorax and abdomen 

 together. In the larva state they are the most destruc- 

 tive of all wood-eating insects, and are known as borers. 

 They are long, whitish, and fleshy, and provided with 

 short, powerful jaws, by which they bore a cylindrical 

 passage through the hardest wood. Some species always 

 keep one end of their burrows- open, out of which they 

 cast their chips ; others, as fast as they proceed, fill their 

 passages behind them with their cuttings, which are the 

 well-known powder-post. They ^ Fig. 325 . 



remain in the larva state from 

 one to three or more years, then 

 go into the pupa state at the 

 extremity of their burrows, and 

 at length appear as beetles. 

 They are popularly- known as 

 Long-horns. 



The Genus Prionus has the 

 antennae composed of flattened 

 joints, which project on the in- 

 side like the teeth of a saw. 



The Broad-necked Prionus, 

 P. laticollis, Drury, is an inch Prionus, p. laticoins, 

 and three quarters long, black, and the larva lives in the 

 trunk of the poplar. 



