o/* Buprestidse fl««? Elate ridse. 183 



According to Ferris, this larva forms broad irregular galleries 

 in the interior of the timber, at a depth of from 2 to 5 centimetres. 

 The form of these galleries is, in his opinion, as characteristic 

 as that of the larva itself, being different from the burrovi^s of 

 any of the many other timber-larvae with which he is acquainted. 

 He states that the walls are so smooth that they look as if they 

 were produced by means of a very sharp instrument * ; and as 

 this is indeed the only remarkable peculiarity which he mentions 

 in these burrows, it would appear as if he looked upon this 

 smoothness and evenness as their great distinctive feature. 

 But such are the burrows of a great many, if not all, tiraber- 

 larvffi, when they are cleared of wood-dust, which, generally 

 speaking, is indicative of their being old and long left by their 

 original inhabitants. There is therefore nothing really charac- 

 teristic in this; and I am inclined to think that Perris's expres- 

 sions rather proceeded from some indistinct feeling that the 

 appearance of the burrows did not quite agree with that of the 

 larvffi (supposing the latter to have constructed them). For 

 just before, speaking of the outward-bent hooked form of the 

 mandibles, he says that he should have thought it a mon- 

 strosity if he had not found it in all the individuals he examined 

 and thus convinced himself of its being of constant occurrence. 

 He adds the observation that the larva moves its mandibles 

 horizontally, like other larva;, but that it gnaws the wood not in 

 closing them, but in opening themf. 



Here, then, we are placed face to face with the unheard-of 

 phenomenon that the mandibles of an articulated animal bite 

 and gnaw, not by being approached to one another, but by being 

 separated, not by closing, but by opening, not by the action of 

 their flexors, but by that of their extensors ! We are called 

 upon to believe that a larva not only makes way for itself through 

 solid timber, but even constructs extensive burrows and galleries 

 with extremely smooth walls, lying all the while quite loose 

 curled up on its side without support, working in a desultory 



* " Elle s'enfonce dans le bois a une profondeur de 2 a 6 centimetres, en 

 creusant des galeries larges et irregulieres dont la forme est aussi carac- 

 teristique que celle de la larve meme et comme n'en pratique aucune des 

 norabreuses larves xylophages que je connais. Ce sont des oavites qui ont 

 en largeur une fois "et demi celle de la tete, et pres de trois fois celle du 

 corps et guere plus d'un millimetre de hauteur. Leurs parois sont si 

 nettement taille'es qu'on les dirait fa9onnees par un instrument tres- 

 tranchant." (Ann. de la Soc. Ent. de Fr. 2'= ser. v. p. 545.) 



t " Je cms la premiere fois, que c'etait une erreur de la nature, une sorte 

 de monstruosite, et si je n'avais vu qu'une seule larve, j'aurais certainement 



signaie' avee quelque mefiance une semblable anomalie Le jeu de ees 



mandibules est horizontal comme dans les autres larves ; mais c'est en 

 s'ecartant et non en se rapprochant qu'elles rongent le bois." {L. c. p. 543.) 



