250 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Dcscript ion Food . 



THE TIMBER CAPRICORN. 



THIS animal is very destructive to timber. 

 Its body is of a dark violet, somewhat hairy and 

 punctured. The thorax is rounded and downy; 

 and the antennae are nearly as long as the body. 

 The wing cases are narrow, rounded at the tip, 

 and bulging towards the base. The head and 

 tborax are sometimes greenish. The jaws are 

 wonderfully adapted for penetration ; they are 

 large, thick, and solid sections of a cone divided 

 longitudinally, which, in the act of mastication, 

 apply to each other the whole of their interior 

 plane surface, so that they grind the insect's food 

 like a pair of millstones. The body is from four 

 lines and a half- to seven and a half in length. 



The timber Capricorn, both in a perfect and 

 larva state, feeds principally on fir timber which 

 has been felled some time, without having had 

 the bark stripped off; but it is often found on 

 other wood. Though now too common in this 

 kingdom, it is supposed not to have been origi- 

 nally a native. 



The female is furnished at the posterior extre- 

 mity of her body with a flat retractile tube. 

 This she inserts between the bark and the wood, 

 to the depth of about a quarter of an inch, and 

 there deposits a single egg. By stripping off the 

 bark, it is easy to trace the whole progress of the 

 larva, from the spot where it is hatched to that 



