424 [Assembly 



sus; the fourth is also angled, and runs upwards on the inner 

 margin of the wing cover tow^ards the scutel ; (the sciitel is a 

 small triangular shell at the bottom and between the wings ;) the 

 fifth is broken or interrupted by a longitudinal elevated line, and 

 the sixth is arched, and consists of three little spots. The anten- 

 nae are dark brown, and the legs are rust-red. These insects 

 vary from si>i-tenths of an inch to three-quarters of an inch in 

 length. 



In the month of September these beetles gather on the locust 

 trees, where they may be seen glittering in^the sunbeams, with 

 their gorgoous livery of black velvet and gold, coursing up and 

 down the trunks in pursuit of their mates, or to drive away their 

 rivals, and stopping every now and then to salute those they 

 meet with a rapid bowing of the shoulders, accompanied by a 

 creaking sound, indicative of recognition or defiance. 



Having paired, the female, attended by her partner, creeps 

 over the bark, searching the crevices with her antennae, and 

 dropping therein her snow-white eggs, in clusters of seven or eight 

 together, and at intervals of five or six minutes, till her whole 

 stock is safely stored. The eggs are soon hatched, and the grubs 

 immediately burrow into the bark, devouring the soft inner sub- 

 stance that suflSces for their nourishment till the approach of win- 

 ter, during which they remain at rest in a torpid state. In the 

 spring they bore into the sap wood, more or less deeply into the 

 trunk, the general course of their winding and irregular passages 

 being an upward direction from the place of their entrance. For 

 a time they cast their chips out of their holes as fast as they are 

 made, but after a while the pat;sage becomes clogged, and the 

 burrow more or less filled with the coarse and fibrous fragments 

 of wood, to get rid of which the grubs are often obliged to open 

 new holes through the bark. The seat of their operations is 

 known by the oozing of the sap and the dropping of the saw-dust 

 from the holes. The bark around the part attacked begins to 

 swell, and in a few years the trunks and limbs will become dis- 

 fio-ured and weakened by large porous tumors, caused by the 

 efforts of the trees to repair the injuries they have suffered. 



