444 THE INSECT WOELD. 



larvae live in the interior of old beams of wood, respecting their 

 surfaces. In a garden, at a few leagues from Paris, a little wooden 

 bridge had been built. It seemed on the outside to be in a perfect 

 state of preservation. Nothing on the exterior would have led one 



Fig. 429. Goliathus cacicus, female. 



to think it was possible for the oak timber which composed it to 

 break down. A good many of them, however, broke suddenly. It 

 was then seen that the wood had been scooped out right up to 

 the surface, which was nothing better than a thin sheet, of an ini- 



