FAMILY BOSTRICHIDjB, M 



Bostrichidoe. 



This family is distinguished by the cylindrical form of the insect, and by the front of the 

 prothorax, whicli is obliquely truncate. In this climate these insects are small, but within 

 the tropics there are some large species. They all infest forest trees, burrowing either 

 beneath the bark or into the wood. The power they possess of penetrating hard substances 

 is quite remarkable : seasoned timber is easily cut by them, and the lead of the roofs of 

 houses scarcely presents an obstruction. At Turin, cartridges stored in barrels were eaten 

 through, and the leaden balls gnawed an eighth of an inch in depth. The Bostrichus ca- 

 pucinus, the species on wliich the genus was first established by Geoffroy, has been found 

 gnawing type metal, which is considerably harder than lead. Their bodies ate hard, and 

 generally black or of a dark rusty brown : the thorax is dilated before ; the antennae short, 

 and terminate in three large serrated joints. The" larvae are wood-eaters also, of a whitish 

 color, wrinkled above, and furnished with six legs. 



Gentjs APATE. Bostrichus (Oliv.). 



Elytra spinose and retuse posteriorly : antennae with the second joint elongate, cylindric ; 

 terminal joints forming a perfoliated club. 



Apate basilaris. 

 Color black or dark brown : prothorax rough and punctured ; base of the elytra r^d, 

 punctured, and the posterior extremity obliquely truncate and furnished with three 

 teeth on each side. Length rather more than one-fourth of an inch. 



This species is found as far south as Carolina. It perforates the shagbark hickory dia- 

 metrically through the trunk to the very heart, where it undergoes its transformations at 

 the bottom of its burrow (Harris on injurious insects). 



In Italy, the branches of the Moms multicaulis are perforated by the ^pate sexdeniaia. 

 Many other species commit great havoc in forests, perforating the wood and burrowing 

 beneath the bark, by which the circulation of the sap is cut off. 



Dr. Haldeman remarks in a manuscript note, that some strips of hickory which he had 

 employed to confine rose plants were destroyed in two years. The hickory is a tree that 

 suflfers much from the attacks of boring insects ; and hoop-poles made of hickory saplings 

 are frequently destroyed, or rendered useless in a few months. Barrel hoops, made of this 

 excellent material, are often attacked, so that much inconvenience, if not actual loss, may 

 be the result. The proper remedy seems to be the immersion of the poles in water, or 

 storing them in cellars, during the deposition of the eggs. The latter mode is sometimes 

 adopted, but the former would have the advantage of destroying young grubs already 

 deposited. 



