GRUBS OF BEETLES. 



245 



apparent discrimination whether these arc the progeny 

 oi llirir own mother, or of a ditTerent species.* 



We have fkqiiently ol)served a very remarkable 

 instinct in the grubs of a species of bettle ( iS(o/i//«s 

 Deslrtutor, Geokfkoy), whicli hves under the dead 

 hark of trees The mother insect, as is usual with 

 beetles, deposits her eggs in a patch or chister in a 

 chink or hole in the bark; and when the brood is 

 hatclied, they begin feeding on the bark which had 

 formed their cradle. There is. of course, nothing won- 

 derful in th.eir eating the tijod selected by their mother; 

 but it appears tliut, like the caterpillars of the clothes 

 moth- and tiie tent insects, they cannot feed except un- 

 der cover. They dig, therefore, long tubular galleries 

 between the bark and the wood; and, in order not 

 to interfere with the runs of their brethren, they 

 branch off from the place of hatching like rays from 

 the centre of a circle: though these are not al- 

 ways in a right lino, yet, however near they may ap- 

 proach to the contiguous ones, none of them ever 



• Bark mined In rays by Uecile grubs. 

 * J. R. See also De Geer, i, 533, &C, and R auniur, ii, 413. 

 VOL. VI. 21* 



