Woodworkers 



we may mention that they go on tunnelling in the tree for 

 three years, and during this time each one increases in 

 weight seventy-two thousand times ! Small wonder then 

 that the goat-moth is looked upon with great disfavour by 

 foresters. At the end of three years the larvae are fully 

 fed and are, withal, repulsive-looking creatures. In colour, 

 they resemble boiled prawns somewhat ; in odour, the 

 rankest billy-goat, a failing which renders them undesir- 

 able as pets, but that is not their only drawback. Their 

 wood-boring propensities are liable to lead to unpleasant 

 consequences. We once knew of an enthusiastic young 

 entomologist who brought home a couple of these larvae 

 in a cardboard box and deposited them for the night on the 

 family grand piano. In the morning the box was empty 

 and the caterpillars were in the piano ; furthermore, they 

 had entered by the shortest route, boring holes right 

 through the rosewood case. Nothing short of a tin box 

 will prevent these larvae from straying and possibly 

 damaging furniture. 



The fully fed larva constructs a very ingenious cocoon. 

 Inside it is smoothly and snugly lined with silk ; outside 

 it is armour-plated by means of a mixture of wood- 

 shavings and saliva. Comfortable and warm within, yet 

 secure in his armoured cocoon, the goat-moth undergoes 

 the changes which convert him from a fat and juicy 

 caterpillar to a large smoke-coloured moth. 



The mention of furniture calls to mind another humble 

 carpenter, in the shape of the death-watch, a beetle which 

 causes so-called worm-eaten wood. The popular name 

 of this beetle may occasion some curiosity. The beetle 

 maintains an intermittent tattoo on the sides of its burrow 

 in the wood. These taps were, and are still in some parts 

 of the country, thought to presage death ; those who are 

 not superstitious will not cavil at a more matter of fact, if 

 less romantic, explanation : they are simply the calls of 

 the female to her mate, the wireless telegraphy of the 

 death-watch. Five times she taps rapidly by knocking 



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