326 MISCELLANEOUS. 



Canada when it occurs in New York and Pennsylvania ? The former 

 place is in closer proximity to the land of pines and the climate 

 congenial to its propagation. 



In a letter to the Editor of the "Canadian Naturalist" 

 (quoted below), " H. C", confirms this idea of Mr. Billings, and 

 at the same time states that the drawing of Monohammus 

 titillator in Olivier's work (an excellent authority) agrees very 

 well with these specimens. 



Is M. titillator a species, and what difference is there between 

 it and M. confusor? '■ H. C." remarks that " in a recent edition of 

 Harris' work the name is still employed", therefore doubting its 

 specific existence. The principal coleopterists of the United States 

 consider it a species. (See Proceed. Ento. Soc. Philad. p. 98), 

 and I quote the following from the Patent Office Report : Agricul- 

 ture— Washington IT. S., 1861, p. 613. by S. S. Eathoon : " One 

 of the largest species of Capricorn beetles belonging to this group 

 is the Monohammus titillator, or " tickling beetle." This insect is 

 from three quarters to an inch and a quarter in length, and 

 the antennae of some of the males are considerably more 

 than twice the length of the body, bristle-shaped, and tapering 

 gradually to the end. The head is vertical in these insects, carried 

 very much like the head of a gnat ; the eyes are oval and located 

 immediately beneath the base of the antenna?; the thorax is round in 

 front and behind, but the middle projects out on each side in a 

 sort of wart or rough tooth. The anterior legs are rather the longest, 

 and the tarsal joints much dilated. The colour of the whole insect 

 is a brown mottled with specks of gray or white. On the upper 

 edge of the middle legs is a small obtuse tooth, but in some indi- 

 viduals this is hardly visible. This insect emerges from the pupa 

 state during the months of June and July. Mr. P. Uhler, of Bal- 

 timore writes to Mr. Eathoon : " I guess you are right in supposing 

 the larva of Monohammus titillator (Harris), to be brought down 

 the Susquehanna in pine logs. It is found in pines in NewYork, 

 from whence the river flows. The larva is a large white flesh-like 

 grub, nearly cylindrical, without feet, numerous fine hairs of a fox 

 colour, with fourteen segments, the second being larger, flat- 

 tened, horny, incliued obliquely downward and forward; the next 

 ones very short, and all the following except the last one with a 

 transverse oval rough space above and beneath. The pupa state 

 is passed in the interior of wood, into which the larva bores a 

 cylindrical hole transversely, and which, when the perfect insect 



