LONGHORNS AND PREY-HUNTERS 47 



their burrows, only, however, to find themselves far 

 away from their native forests, strangers in a strange 

 land, and suddenly introduced into a human society, 

 which is as astonished to receive them as they are to 

 find themselves in its presence. In this way many fine 

 exotic Longicorns have been captured alive in different 

 parts of England, and this, too, is the explanation of 

 the not unfrequent occurrence of the Longicorn beetle 

 called the "timberman" in mines. They have been 

 introduced in the larval condition in the timbers used 

 in roofing and supporting the passages, and have some- 

 times established themselves and bred there. Various 

 forest trees are liable to the attacks of Longicorn beetles, 

 but, of course, it is those that burrow in fir-wood that 

 are chiefly imported into this country. 



So, then, there are some of these Longicorns that may 

 every now and then be expected to turn up in houses. 

 Our British species are few in number, and, as a rule, 

 not common ; still, I have received one of our smallest 

 in considerable numbers from two different houses. It 

 is a quaint little brown beetle, 

 which is said to be partial to 

 old wood-work, and is called 

 Gracilia pygmcea (Fig. 18). 

 It is a narrow linear insect, 

 with antennae only a little 

 longer than the body, the 

 length being produced, as in 

 all this section, not by a mul- 

 tiplication of the joints, but 

 ,,-,..,.., ,, .. FIG. 18. Gracilia pygmsea. 



by their individual elongation. 



It is remarkable for the disproportionate size of the 

 thorax, which, with the head, occupies about one-third 

 the length of the whole body, and for the great breadth 



