SAMOUELLE S 



Mr. Kirby has given tlic following interesting 

 note on this insect. "The larva of a Cerambyx 

 K which Dr. Leach has discovered to be C. Bajulus L.) 

 sometimes does injury to the wood -work of the 

 houses in London, piercing in every direction the 

 fir rafters, and, when arrived at its perfect state, 

 making its way out even through sheets of lead one 

 sixth of an inch thick, when they happen to have 

 been nailed upon the rafter in which it has assumed 

 its final metamorphosis. I am indebted to the kind- 

 ness of Sir Joseph Banks for a specimen of such a 

 sheet of lead, which, though only eight inches long 

 and four broad, is thus pierced with twelve oval 

 holes, of some of which the longest diameter is a 

 quarter of an inch ! Mr. Charles Miller first dis- 

 covered lead in the stomach of this insect." 



Varieties of this species with pale elytra are not 

 uncommon : this curious circumstance may possibly 

 arise from extreme labour in the insect, by which 

 means it loses such juices as give colour and strength 

 to the elytra which in such specimens are generally 

 soft. 



The insect may be met with in June. 



