UNDER THE BARK. 66 



many others, were found various little beetles, which 

 are popularly known as Sun-beetles or Sunshiners. 



Carefully opening another stump, and removing 

 half an inch or so of the rotten and damp wood, a slight 

 movement caught my eye, and in a short time an 

 antenna, evidently of a beetle, was seen gradually 

 working its way to the light. Presently another 

 antenna appeared, and then the head, which at once 

 proclaimed itself as that of one of the wood-burrow- 

 ing, long-horn beetles, called Mhagium bifasciatum. 

 I do not know that it has any popular name, as is 

 indeed the case with most beetles, however common 

 they may be. This is a pretty, though soberly 

 coloured insect, long bodied, long horned, long legged, 

 and having a bold and sharp spike on each side of 

 the thorax. To the unassisted eye it is only blackish 

 gray, with four diagonal, cream-coloured marks on 

 the elytra. But when a powerful light is concen- 

 trated upon it, and the magnifying lens is employed, 

 the colouring assumes a very curious aspect. The 

 elytra seem to be made of black glass, ribbed, and 

 covered on the surface with a multitude of tiny white 

 specks, while the cream-coloured marks appear to lie 

 quite beneath the surface, as if they were painted under 

 the glass. 



I was very glad to find this beetle, having tried in 

 vain to discover one of its curious nests, but, though 

 three insects were in the same little stump, I could not 

 find a perfect nest. At last, however, in another stump 



