CARPENTERS AND WOOD- WORKERS 117 



attention, and even the coleopterist does not reckon 

 it among common insects. But this is probably 

 due to the fact that our forests are not what they 

 were. 



Anobium striatum is the well-known (by its works 

 at least, if not in person) little beetle that bores 

 the numerous pin-holes in our choice old furniture ; 

 and its larger relation, A. tessellatum, does similar 

 work in beams. They are known as the "Death 

 Watch," whose tapping, heard only in the stillness 

 of the sick chamber, was formerly held to be a sure 

 presage of the patient's early death. They are 

 near relations of the " Biscuit Weevil," which may 

 be regarded as a carpenter from the fact that it 

 operates on biscuits that are as hard as wood ; but 

 not content with drilling passages, it demolishes 

 the whole. 



The grub of Nacerdes melanura has a special 

 liking for working in floating or water-logged 

 timber. It may be found along our sea-coasts in 

 timber that has been brought down the rivers in 

 flood, or that has been cast up by the sea. 



Most of the larvae of the enormous family of 

 beetles known as Longicorns (Cerambycidce), of 

 which more than twelve thousand species are 

 known, live on or in wood and the stems of softer 

 plants. The Oak-pruner (Elaphidion villosum), of 

 North America, feeds in the limbs of oak-trees, 

 and cuts across them in such manner that they 

 fall to the ground, the grub evidently preferring its 

 wood dead. 



