INSECTA. 



861 



(fig. 333) upon the sap that flows from the 

 wounded bark or roots. 



Fig. 333. 



The third tribe, Macrosterni, WESTW. in- 

 cludes a family of insects, Elateridz, (fig. 334), 



Fig. 334. 



Dynastes Herculet. 



f the ppicranium ; b, theclypeus; e, labrum; d, 

 mandibles- e, maxilla and palpi \f, labial palpi; 

 q, antennae; /, the eye; . prothorax and horn; 

 It, scutellnm ; I, elytra ; TO, abdomen; n, femur; 

 o, tibia ; p, the tarsus ; q, unguis. 



Elater nocttiucus, (Click beetle, female.) West-Indian 

 Jire-beetle. 



or springing-beetles, which are commonly 

 known in their state of larvae, as the wire-worm^ 

 and are often exceedingly injurious to meadows 

 and Corn-fields. In some counties many acres 

 of meadow-land have occasionally been de- 

 stroyed by these insects attacking the roots of 

 the grass, which then quickly perishes.* They 

 are characterized in their perfect state by having 

 an elongated body, with the head sunk deeply 

 into a notch in the prothorax ; by their fan-shaped 

 or serrated antenna?, and by a long spine or pro- 

 cess directed backwards from the pro-sternum or 

 under-surface of the prothorax, and received 

 into a groove in the meso-sternum. By means 

 of this spine they are enabled, on bending the 

 body and then suddenly retracting it, to spring 

 to a considerable distance. From this act they 

 have derived their name. Some species of the 

 family are remarkable for shining brilliantly at 

 night, and are the noted fire- flies of the West 

 Indies. 



In the fourth tribe, Aprosterni, WESTW., 

 there are insects equally curious and destruc- 

 tive as in the preceding. The true Aprosterni 

 are distinguished chiefly by their soft flexible 

 elytra, by an entire absence of any process 

 from the sternal surface of the prothorax, and 

 by the dilatation of the margins of the pro- 



the branch of a tree between its frontal (a) and 

 thoracic horn (i), and then whirls itself round to 

 cut through the bark and occasion a flow of sap, 

 upon which the insect is said to subsist. Impro- 

 bable as the statement appears, from the circum- 

 stance that the thoracic horn is wanting in the 

 female, we were once assured of its correctness, 

 by a gentleman who affirmed to us he had witnessed 

 the fact. A similar act is attributed to the male 

 stag-beetle, Lucanus cervus, which is furnished with 

 mandibles nearly half the length of its whole body, 

 while in the female they are not larger than in other 

 insects of the same size. 



* The Rev. F. W. Hope has ascertained that the 

 larvae of this family were exceedingly destructive 

 to the potato crops in the West of England during 

 the summer of 1838, an account of which was 

 read at the meeting of the Entomological Society, 

 April 1st, 1839. 



