The Ergates; the Cossus 



time to time, caresses her with a lick of his 

 tongue on her back. Other people, other 

 customs. I know one who rivals the insect 

 of the pines in that barbarous propensity for 

 mutilating its fellows. This is the JEgo- 

 soma (M. scabricorne, FAB.), who likewise 

 is a lover of darkness and sports a pair of 

 long horns. His grub lives in the wood of 

 old willows hollow with age. The adult is 

 a handsome insect, attired in bright brown 

 and bearing a pair of very fierce antennae. 

 With the Capricorn and Ergates, he is the 

 most noteworthy of all the Longicorns in the 

 matter of size. 



In July, at about eleven o'clock on a warm, 

 still night, I find him crouching flat on the 

 inside of the cavernous willows or oftener on 

 the outside, on the rough bark of the trunk. 

 The males occur pretty frequently. Motion- 

 less, undismayed by the sudden flashes of my 

 lantern, they await the coming of the females 

 lurking in the deep crevices of the decayed 

 wood. 



The ^Egosoma also is armed with power- 

 ful shears, with mandibular cleavers which 

 are very useful to the new-formed adult for 

 hewing a way out, but which become a crying 

 abuse among insects of the same family, 

 191 



