THE CAPRICORN-BEETLES. 



which they are crowded. Just before they are about to be 

 transformed, they bore into the solid wood to the depth of 

 several inches. They are said to be very injurious to the 

 sapling pines in Maine. Professor Peck supposed this species 

 of Callidium to have been introduced into Europe in timber 

 exported from this country, as it is found in most parts of 

 that continent that have been much connected with North 

 America by navigation. Thus Europe and America seem 

 to have interchanged the porter and violet Callidium, which, 

 by means of shipping, have now become common to the two 

 continents. 



From the regularity of its form, and the noble size it 

 attains, the sugar-maple is accounted one of the most beau- 

 tiful of our forest-trees, and is esteemed as one of the most 

 valuable, on account of its many useful properties. This 

 fine tree suffers much from the attacks of borers, which in 

 some cases produce its entire destruction. We are indebted 

 to the Rev. L. W. Leonard, of Dublin, N. H., for the first 

 account of the habits and transformations of these borers. 

 In the summer of 1828, his attention was called to some 

 young maples, in Keene, which were in a languishing condi- 

 tion. He discovered the insect in its beetle state under the 

 loosened bark of one of the trees, and traced the recent 

 track of the larva three inches into the solid wood. In the 

 course of a few years, these trees, upon the cultivation of 

 which much care had been bestowed, were nearly destroyed 

 by the borers. The failure, from the same cause, of sev- 

 eral other attempts to raise the sugar-maple, has since 

 come to my knowledge. The insects are changed to beetles, 

 and come out of the trunks of the trees in July. In the 

 vicinity of Boston, specimens have been repeatedly taken, 

 which were undoubtedly brought here in maple logs from 

 Maine. The beetle was first described in 1824, in the Ap- 

 pendix to Keating's " Narrative of Long's Expedition," by 

 Mr. Say, who called it Clytus speciosus ; that is, the beauti- 

 ful Clytus. (Plate II. Fig. 15.) It was afterwards inserted, 



13* 



