The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



tree. Its larva lives between the wood and 

 the bark. To undergo its transformation, 

 it goes down instead of coming up. In the 

 sap-wood, parallel with the surface of the 

 trunk, under a layer of wood barely a twenty- 

 fifth of an inch in thickness, it makes a cylin- 

 drical cell, rounded at the ends and roughly 

 padded with ligneous fibres. A solid plug 

 of shavings barricades the entrance, which 

 is not preceded by any vestibule. Here the 

 work of deliverance is the simplest. The 

 Saperda has only to clear the door of his 

 chamber to find beneath his mandibles the 

 little bit of bark that remains to be pierced. 

 As you see, we once more have to do with 

 two specialists, each working in his own man- 

 ner with the same tools. 



The Buprestes, as zealous as the Longi- 

 corns in the destruction of trees, whether 

 sound or ailing, tell us the same tale as the 

 Cerambyx- and Saperda-beetles. The Bronze 

 Buprestis (B. <ened) is an inmate of the black 

 poplar. Her larva gnaws the interior of 

 the trunk. For the nymphosis it installs it- 

 self near the surface in a flattened, oval cell, 

 which is prolonged at the back by the wan- 

 dering-gallery, firmly packed with wormed 

 wood, and in front by a short, slightly curved 

 vestibule. A layer of wood not a twenty-fifth 



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