862 



INSECTA. 



thorax, which anteriorly covers the base of the 

 head. Some exceptions exist to these charac- 

 ters in the Bostricidte and their congeners, 

 which ought perhaps to be removed to another 

 tribe. In the Lampyrida (glow-worms), (Jigs. 

 335 and 336), there is an example of a circum- 



Fig. 337. 



Fig. 335. 



Fig. 336. 



Male. Female. 



Lampyris noctiluca, (Glow-worm). 



stance not uncommon among insects, the pos- 

 session of wings by the male sex and their 

 entire absence in the female. The Ptinidtz or 

 death-watches, and other Xylophagous insects 

 of this tribe, although small, are exceedingly 

 destructive to furniture and the wood of houses; 

 and the Bostricidte and Scolytida to living trees. 

 It is an insect of this family, Scolytu* de- 

 structor, that of late years has occasioned in- 

 calculable mischief to the elms in St. James's 

 Park and Kensington Gardens, and in the 

 park at Brussels. So lately as the summer of 

 1836 nearly eighty fine elms were cut down at 

 the latter place and its neighbourhood, in con- 

 sequence of decay occasioned by this pest.* 

 Another species S. pygmaus, which attacks 

 the oak, has destroyed many thousands of 

 young trees in the Bois de Vincennes.-\- Ano- 

 ther genus, Tomicus typographies, was so de- 

 structive in the Hartz Forest in Germany du- 

 ring a series of years from the beginning of the 

 last century to 1783, that the number of trees 

 destroyed by it in that forest alone was calcu- 

 lated at a million and a half.J 



In the third section, Pseudo-tetramera, 

 WESTW., the species have one false and four dis- 

 tinct tarsal joints to their legs, with pulvilli or 

 hairy cushion on their under surface, and the 

 ante-penultimate joint is bilobed and broader 

 than the others. The section is divided into two 

 tribes. 



In the first tribe, Rhynchophora, (Jig. 337), 

 the head is elongated in the form of a snout or 

 rostrum, at the extremity of which is the mouth, 

 and at the sides are inserted the antennae which 

 are usually geniculated and club-shaped. The 

 larvae of these insects are generally apodal, 

 and many species are exceedingly injurious to 

 the blossoms of the apple, pear, and other 

 fruit-trees. Both the larva and perfect indi- 

 vidual of one minute species, well known as 

 the " weevil." Calandra granaria, closely al- 

 lied to Jig. 337, occasion immense losses in 

 the storehouses of the factor by attacking and 

 destroying his corn. The parent insect not 



* Trans. Ent. Society, vol. ii. p. xvi. 



t Annal. Soc. Ent. France. 1836, pp. xvi. and 

 xxx. 1837, p. iv. 



| Latreille, Hist. Nat. torn. ii. Gmelin, Ab- 

 hand. iiber die Wurmtroekniss. Leipz. 1787. West- 

 wood, Introduction, &c. vol. i. p. 352. 



Calandra longipes, male. 



only feeds upon the corn itself, but deposits a 



single egg in every grain, and the larva when 



hatched devours the whole excepting the husk. 



The second tribe, Longicornes, (Jig. 338), 



Fig. 338. 



Cerambyx latipes. 



are known chiefly by the great length of the 

 antennae, which usually exceeds that of the 

 whole body. Their mandibles are strong and 

 pointed ; the body elongated and depressed ; 

 and the prothorax, which is often tuberculated 

 or spined, is narrower than the abdomen. 

 Their larvae are short, thick, and apodal, and 

 are furnished with strong mandibles, and live 

 beneath the bark or in the wood of trees. 



The third tribe, Phytophaga, KIRBY, is also 

 composed of pseudo-tetramerous insects, with 

 pulvilli on their tarsi, and is divided into two 

 sub-tribes. In the first, Eupoda, the body is 

 of an elongated oval form, the head is sunk 

 deeply into a narrow prothorax, and the thighs 

 of the posterior legs are greatly enlarged. In 

 the second sub-tribe, Cyclica, the body is of a 

 rounded or oblong oval (Jig. 339), the base 

 of the prothorax is narrower than that of the 

 elytra, and the antennae, which are of moderate 

 length, are inserted widely apart from each 



