234 



Callidicm.- 



-IKSECTS.- 



-Sapebda. 



rather from Britisb Columbia, for I believe the speci- 

 inen came from the continent. 



Plate 3, fig. 9, shows a South African species of 

 the fine genus Tragocephala ; it is the T. comUessa, 

 The Tragocepludoe sire fine African insects. Phos- 

 p/ioi-us Lucia and Phosphortis Jansoni, especially the 

 latter, are most striking insects when fresh. The 

 beautifully delicate yellow plush, and the black sur- 

 roundings, form a fine contrast. 



Sir James Emerson Tennent* records the ravages 

 made on the cocoa-nut trees of Ceylon b}' a large 

 ppecies of Longicornus beetle {Batocera ruhua), called 

 by the Singhalese Cocrroominya. The larva of this 

 " makes its way into the st«ms of the younger trees, 

 and after perforating them in all directions, it forms a 

 cocoon of the gnawed wood and sawdust, in which it 

 reposes during its sleep as a pupa, till the arrival of the 

 period when it emerges as a perfect beetle." Notwith- 

 standing the repulsive aspect of the large pulpy larvse 

 of these beetles, they are esteemed a luxury by the 

 Malabar Coolies. Sir James quotes a paper by Mr. 

 Capper in the Journal of Die Asiatic Socidij of Ceylon 

 for May, 1845, on the ravages perpetrated by these 

 beetles. Jlr. Capper had recently passed through several 

 cocoa-nut plantations, varying in extent from twenty 

 to one bundled and fifty acres, and about two to three 

 years old ; in these he did not discover a single young 

 tree untouched by this destructive Longicom beetle. 



Of the boring powers of some of the Longicorns I 

 have had most satisfactory proof. I have seen part 

 of a cistern lined with lead, through which a speci- 

 men of Callidium bojulum had bored. The grub or 

 pupa happened to be in the wood when the cistern 

 was constructed, and the creature with its upward 



Bardistas cibariiu. 



tendencies ate through the wood, and actually per- 

 foratiid the lead lining of the cistern. It was only 

 found out by the leaking of the water. The natives 

 of King George's Sound were found, amongst other 

 grubs, to be fond of those of a beetle described by Mr. 



* Ceylon ; an Account of the Island, Physical, Historical, 

 and 'I'oijograpliical, &c., vol. i., p. 249. 



Kewman, and which he named Bardislus cibarius. It 

 is represented in fig. 133. According to Captain (now 

 Governor Sir) George Grey, the grub is named Barde. 

 Bardislui is a native of King George's Sound, where it 

 seems to be very abundant, forming a favourite article 

 of food with the natives. It is eaten in its imago as 

 well as its larva and pupa states. It is found in the 

 Xanthorhea. 



The larva of a Longicorn beetle of the genns Aga- 

 panthia {A. suturalis — Fald) has been observed and 

 described by M. E. Perris.* The accompanjing 

 figures (figs. 134 and 135) are carefully copied from 

 his plate. 



Fig. IM. 



Fig. 135. 



Pupa of .\gapaiitbia. Larva. 



This larva lives in the stems of the Melilotus macro- 

 rhiza, one of those yellow trefoils which grow in the 

 clayey and rather moistish parts of Belgium. It is of a 

 yellowish-white colour, and is distinguished by the 

 dorsal protuberances and pectoral swellings from others 

 of the genus which have been observed. The perfect 

 insect comes out in June. The female deposits a single 

 egg on the tender stem of the trefoil. The young larva, 

 when hatched, pierces its way with its jaws into the 

 medullary canal, and hollows out a gallery, eating its 

 way. This gallery it traverses with great ease; the 

 protuberances of its back act as legs or props, where- 

 with to push against the wall. In April or May it 

 turns into the nymph or pupa state, and escapes by a 

 round hole which it pierces in the plant. The perfect 

 insect is a narrowish, greenish bronze beetle, the suture 

 and side margins of the elytra being clothed with grey- 

 ish-yellow downy hairs. 



The apple-tree in the United States suffers much 

 from the attack of the j'ellowish or white cylindrical 

 grub of the Soperda hiviltata, so called from the white 

 stripes on its elytra. 



I)r. Asa Fitclif tells us that the Wirjged beetle 

 appears early in June. Among the means ]jrovided by 

 the Author of nature for destroying this borer, arid 

 keeping it from becoming unduly multiplied, the 

 Woodpeckers, especially the Downy woodpecker, /*(>«« 

 puhescens L., stands conspicuous. And yet another 

 American writerj insists on the necessity of the orchard- 

 keeper carrying on a war of extermination against this 

 bird, which, from the account of Dr. Fitch, appears to 

 be in reality one of his most useful friends. 



• M6moires de la Society rovale des Sciences de I.i<?ge, vol, 

 X. y. 244, PI. 5, figs. 37, 46 ; 185.'), 



t Kc'port on the noxious, beneficial, and other insects in tho 

 State of New York, p. 13. Albany, U.S., 1855. 



t Kirkbnd ; Zoology (OhioJ, p. 179. 



