524 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



s'ight tubercle on the middle of the head. It is a south- 

 ern insect, rarely seen even in southern New Jersey, for 

 example ; I have found larvae, pupae, and adults abundant 

 in rotten wood in southern Mississippi." It is the largest 

 of all North American beetles, and gives forth a very 

 disagreeable odor when handled. Young beetles of this 

 species, directly after passing from the pupa stage, are 

 of a rich brown color; but as they become adult, they 

 gradually change to a beautiful gray on the wings, some- 

 times verging on a deep orange on the head. The elytra, 

 as seen in the cut, is irregularly spotted with black spots 

 of various sizes and shapes. In some specimens the 

 ground color 

 is of a green- 

 i s h gray. 

 Sometimes, in 

 c o 1 1 e c tions, 

 specimens o f 

 this beetle have 

 a way of turn- 

 ing e n t i r e ly 

 black fi r s t 

 one side of the 

 body and then 

 the other. 

 West Indian 

 Hercules bee- 

 tles also belong 

 to this group, 

 and they are 

 the largest of 

 all known ex- 

 isting species ; 

 it is said that 

 the horn on 

 this beetle's 

 head is at least 

 three or more 

 inches long. 



While living 

 in sou th e rn 

 Conn ecticut, 

 the writer fre- 

 quently cap- 

 tured speci- 

 mens of the 

 Qoaked Knot- 

 ty-horn; they were always found on elder-berry bushes. 

 It is known that the larvae enter the pith of that shrub, 

 and that the beetles appear during midsummer. They 

 are rare in the District of Columbia, the writer having 

 captured only a single specimen after hunting for it dur- 

 ing several summers. It is a very beautiful insect, the 

 head and hinder halves of the wings being of an intense 

 blue, the rest a rich orange. This latter character ac- 

 counts for one of its common names, as it has the appear- 

 ance of having a little cloak thrown over its shoulders. 

 It is also called knotty-horn, and the structure of its 

 antennae will account for this (No. 1.) 



FIG. 3. A LARGE TEXAN TARANTULA 



The bite of this species is dangerous and they have the habit of suddenly jumping when 

 near the object they attack, either in an offensive way or to capture their prey. 



Down in South America they have some elegant insects 

 which they call Buprestids, while those we have are 

 rather modest little species, such as the Virginia Bu- 

 prestid, shown in No. 2, it being one of the largest species 

 of the genus in the United States. A Maryland specimen 

 taken by the writer had a length of one and a quarter 

 inches ; it was of a brownish black color, slightly bronzed, 

 with darker markings. These insects are wood borers, 

 attacking pines, and, consequently, harmful to those trees, 

 and sometimes the damage they do is very extensive. 

 One can readily recognize it by its rough and ridged 

 elytra. 



M a h o g - 

 any brown in 

 color, with the 

 under parts 

 much lighter, 

 t h e Straight- 

 bodied Prionus 

 is well named, 

 as the sides of 

 the elytra are 

 nearly parallel 

 for their en- 

 tire lengths 

 (No. 3). Note 

 the spines on 

 the sides of its 

 neck they as- 

 sist in identifi- 

 cation. It 

 seems that 

 there are no 

 reports p u b - 

 lished charg- 

 ing this insect 

 with doing 

 damage to our 

 forest trees. 

 Sometimes the 

 larvae are 

 found in hun- 

 dreds in dying 

 h em 1 ock s , 

 where they 

 were not con- 

 cerned in the 

 killing of the trees ; they also occur in rotten pine stumps. 

 Packard gives us an excellent cut of this beetle in his 

 "Forest Insects," and says of it that "Mr. Calder has 

 aiso found the fully-grown larvae in August in maple 

 logs at Warwick, R. I., and in the rotten wood of another 

 deciduous tree. So that it appears that this beetle lives 

 irdifferently in the soft, decayed logs or stumps both 

 of hard and coniferous trees." 



Stag beetles of the species shown in No. 4 are of a very 

 dark brown color, and get their name from their big 

 mandibles or jaws, which resemble miniature antlers of 

 a stag or deer; these are shorter in the female insect. 



