COLEOPTERA. 441 
larve live in the interior of old beams of wood, respecting their 
surfaces. In a garden, at a few leagues from Paris, a little wooden 
bridge had been built. It seemed on the outside to be in a perfect 
state of preservation. Nothing on the exterior would have led one 








Fig. 428.—Goliathus cacicus, female. 
to think it was possible for the oak timbers which composed it to 
break down. A good many of them, however, broke suddenly. It | 
was then seen that the wood had been scooped out right up to 
the surface, which was nothing better than a thin sheet, of an 
