4l8 NOTES ON NEW AND RARE LOCAL BEETLES. 



for itself a chamber in which, on attaining its full larval growth, 

 it pupates, and it will be readily understood that the condition 

 of the timber in a great measure rules the length of the beetle's 

 larval life, and in a certain degree its size and vigour in 

 maturity. The beetles of the bark-boring Scolyiidcz eat their 

 way out from their pupating chambers, but Trypodendron, 

 upon emerging from its quiescent state of " pupa-hood," simply 

 makes its exit by the parent gallery already formed. There- 

 fore in the early spring one finds each Trypode7idro?i-ga\\&ry 

 occupied by a female facing inwards, and later in the year 

 when the brood is emerging either sex may be seen with its 

 head peeping from the entrance, i.e., facing outwards, and 

 towards evening they come out one after the other to taste the 

 pleasures of maturity in a wider world. We have thus a rough 

 outline of the life of a Trypodendron, which will be similar in 

 a greater or less degree with that of all the species of that 

 genus; and, to proceed with the insects under review, we must 

 now consider Erichson's JEpurcea angustula. 



It is recorded by Canon Fowler (Brit. Col., vol. iii., p. 233, 

 pi. Ixxxviii., fig. 2) as very rare under bark of beech, fir, holly, 

 etc., and he gives seven localities for it, whilst Ganglbauer* in 

 his " Die Kafer von Mitteleuropa" says nothing about its para- 

 sitical habits, merely " North and Central Europe, under bark 

 of birch and pine, rare." It seems strange to us that though 

 Canon Fowler (without comment) actually records angtistula 

 from Scotland as " very rare, in the burrows of Xyloterus 

 lineatum in Scotch fir," and since his work was published other 

 coleopterists have taken the species from under bark of holly 

 and birch infested by TrypodendroJi domesticum, no connection 

 between the Epurcea and species of Trypodendron seems to 

 have hitherto been suggested or established. Also, E. angustula 

 differs in shape from all the other species of its genus, being 

 an elongate, linear, and parallel insect, its form alone being 



* I would mention that Prof. Hudson Beare, to whom I am indebted for his 

 kindness in supplying me with translated extracts from Ganglbauer's Din Kiifer von 

 Mitteleuropa, and who was with me on two occasions when the Acrulia (Gibside, 

 21. iii. 06, and Winlaton, 23. vi. 06), and Epurcea (Winlaton, 23. vi. 06) were 

 captured, quite agrees in regarding both species as parasitical. 



