Queer Homes. 43 



ture, stri6lly adhering to the traditions of its race and 

 making its home between old books and paper. 



Two or three of our beetles are remarkable tor their 

 habit of cutting off the branches of trees. For a long 

 time the reason of this proceeding remained one of 

 Nature's secrets, some supposing that it was done by the 

 beetles out of a pure spirit of mischief. It is now known 

 however that the larvae of these beetles bore and exca- 

 vate the branches of trees for the purpose of undergoing 

 their metamorphosis and that the perfe6l insedt, with 

 wonderful instin6l, " rings" the bark to prevent the 

 sap from flowing into the branches too freely and in- 

 juring the young larvae. Branches thus cut often break 

 by their own weight, or are snapped off by the wind. 

 These beetles are known here as "Sawyer" beetles and 

 one of them is a very large inse6l often growing to the 

 length of six iriches. 



I have seen the larvae of a beetle in soft Hiawa gum. 

 It was a snow white grub, neatly coiled up in the fragrant 

 substance. Other members of the beetle family pass 

 through their larval stages in all sorts of curious situa- 

 tions, such as the sour legumes of the Tamarind, the hard 

 pods of the locust, and the stony seeds of various palms. 

 The egg cases (Ootheca) of the voracious mantidae are 

 very curious looking obje6ls. They are generally at- 

 tached to twigs, and some of them look like the galls 

 made by species of Cynips. Our large green mantis 

 covers its eggs with a very curious corrugated capsule. 

 They are often attacked and destroyed by a small black 

 ant, which being frequently found crawling about them 

 have led some to suppose that they were ants' nests. 



PS 



