4082 The Zoologist — July, 1874. 



trees 'with larvoe in, with hardly any exception, we discover the bark eaten 

 away, or rather, I should say, wanting about the level of the ground ; from 

 this place to the entrance-hole of the borer in the forks of the roots there is 

 always to be observed a more or less irregular channel or road cut in the 

 bark leading from one to the other, and in this channel I discovered two of 

 the three small specimens of larvae mentioned above. The entrance-hole of 

 the larva is very irregularly placed; sometimes it begins as an excavation 

 along one of the roots at a fork in the rootlets ; sometimes it entere im- 

 mediately under the first root, hardly below the ground. I have not noticed 

 the entrance of the larva above ground, except in two instances, when there 

 was a hole below the lowest primary in one case and the second primary in 

 the other. I did not, however, satisfactorily determine that these were the 

 same insect, or even if so, they may be considered as accidental cases. The 

 excavation of the wood of the tree by the larvx need not be entered into, as 

 every one must be well aware of their powerful mandibles and their un- 

 limited appetites. How long the insect remains in the larva form I have 

 not yet been able to judge ; but in consequence of finding always two and 

 sometimes three distinct sizes in the insects taken out of a hundred trees, 

 I imagine not less than two years, and possibly so long as three. The first 

 transformation at present I have only observed in October ; but I am half 

 inclined to tliink there is a double brood, and another transformation about 

 May : as I was not in the colony at that time last year, having given my 

 attention to the question since July last, I am looking forward next month 

 to deciding this point, as unluckily we have many diseased trees to 

 operate on. 



" I enclosed with the larva formerly sent to you a specimen of the pupa ; 

 it was first discovered about the beginning of October, and was found till 

 the middle of December. The first perfect insects were found iu the 

 beginning of December and the last week in November. 



" The imago, from the name, I imagine to be Authorea leuconotus, a 

 longicorn, with the elytra covered with very fine down, almost a bloom, and 

 grayish colour, the bases of the elytra being of a reddish chocolate, with a 

 purplish shot on it when newly emerged. The insect, I think, lies torpid 

 after its complete transformation till some ' drying day ' comes, when it bores 

 its way out; but what happens to it afterwards I have never been able to 

 discover : only three specimens were found on the whole estate, although 

 I offered sixpence each for them, and we were splitting trees with two and 

 three perfect insects in them each. "When I speak of a ' drying day,' I mean 

 one of the ' hot winds ' from the north-west, which occur in our spring here, 

 taking the thermometer up to 100° iu the shade, and considerably affecting 

 insect-life. I noticed especially that the morning after one of these hot 

 winds, on splitting some of the trees, the insects looked so lively that we 

 left off splitting in haste, and gathering the trees together in large heaps 



