COLEOPTERA. 



571 



Fig. 695. 



tomologist the goldenrod is a rich mine, yielding to the 

 collector more treasures than any other flower. It gives 

 up its gold-dust pollen to every insect-seeker; and because 

 of this generous attitude to all-comers it is truly emblematic 

 of the country that has chosen it as its national flower. 



Among the insects that revel in this golden mine in the 

 autumn is a black beetle with numerous transverse or wavy 

 yellow bands (Fig. 695). This beetle is also 

 found on locust-trees, where it lays its eggs. 

 The larvne bore under the bark and into the 

 hard wood ; they attain their growth in a little 

 less than a year. The locust-trees have been 

 completely destroyed in some localities by the 

 depredations of these larvae. 



The Painted Hickory-borer, Cyllene pictus 

 (C. pic'tus). — This beetle resembles the preced- 

 ing so closely that the same figure will represent either. 

 But the Hickory-borer not only infests a different kind of 

 tree, but appears in the spring instead of the autumn. In 

 this species the second segment of the hind tarsus is densely 

 pubescent beneath, while it is glabrous in the Locust-borer. 



The Oak-pruner, Elaphidion villosum (El-a-phid'i-on vil- 

 lo'sum). — The work of this insect is much more likely to 

 attract attention than the insect itself. Frequently, in the 

 autumn, the ground beneath oak-trees, and sometimes 

 beneath apple-trees also, is strewn with small branches that 

 have been neatly severed from the trees as if with a saw. 

 These branches are sometimes nearly an inch in diameter, 

 and have been cut off by the larva of a beetle, which on ac- 

 count of this habit is called the Oak-pruner. The beetle lays 

 each of its eggs in a small twig. The larva eats out the in- 

 side of this twig, and works down into a larger branch, fol- 

 lowing the centre of it towards the trunk of the tree. When 

 full grown the larva enlarges the burrow suddenly so as 

 nearly to sever the branch from the tree, leaving only the 

 bark and a few fibres of wood. It then retreats up its bur- 



