20 L. Peringney, Insects Injurious to [Jan. 28, 



which is found at times in great number, I am informed, on the peach- 

 trees. But that family does not really come within our range, 

 although the larvae of one of the sub-tribe, the Orijctidae^ to which 

 belong the so-called Rhmoceros beetle, ''Oryctes Boas'^ so common in 

 the east, and found also in Senegambia, live in old trunks. Near 

 Cape Town, the larva of an allied species, Cyplionistes^ corniculatus is 

 very common on the Cape flats, under the mounds of a species of 

 Termes — white ant. Must we see there an instance of struggle for 

 existence brought by the denudation of that part of the country ? No 

 less than 645 of those leaf and fruit feeding insects are described 

 from the Cape. 



It is to that family that the gigantic insects of the genus Scara- 

 hc&us proper, Megasoma and Goliathus, belong. Some of them are 

 bigger than a man's fist. The Scarahceus Hercules, of the West 

 Indies, is said on no less an authority than Lacordaire's to seize young 

 branches between the long horns his head and prothorax are armed 

 with, and to cut them by a rapid rotating flight. We have only 

 one true Goliathus of comparatively small size. It is found near the 

 Magalisberg Mountains, in the Transvaal. 



BUPRESTIDAE. 



224 S. African species. 



The larvae of these insects live mostly in decaying wood, many of 

 them between the bark and the wood of unhealthy trees, but many 

 also in trees in good condition. For these insects (as well as for the 

 Scolytidae), it is not certain whether they cause the death of trees, or 

 if they only select those that are beginning to decay. The females are 

 provided with a horny auger, composed of three pieces, with 

 which they drill holes to deposit their eggs in. I exhibit the larva 

 of one Buprestis, either a Julodis or a ChalcopJiora which was sent to 

 the Museum by Mr. Garwood Alston. It is unfortunately dead. 



The most numerous of that group in S. Africa are the Julodis. 

 These lovely insects, in spite of the damage they must occasion to 

 timber, are of some use in the Economy of Nature, because I consider 

 them as the most powerful instruments of fertilisation, mostly of the 

 flowers of the Thorn-tree, '' Acacia horrida.^^ The genus Julodis is 

 represented in Nubia, Senegal, Arabia and Syria, but it is only those 

 inhabiting South Africa that are provided with those curious tufts of 

 hairs. The duration of the metamorphosis of the Buprestidae is very 

 long. An instance has been recorded of the Buprestis splendida 

 emerging from a deal table, which had been used for more than 20 

 years. Mr. S. Windham, of Maritzburg, informs me that he has 

 repeatedly captured the Psiloptera viridimarginata on the stems of a 

 small plantation of conifers. 



This would seem to be a habit of the European species. If I men- 

 tion the fact of the Psiloptera viridimarginata, showing such a 

 natural taste for the conifers, it is because of the damage done to the 

 Forests of the South of France, by a species of that family, the 

 Coraehus hi-fasciatus, oliv, a small insect, which was ascertained to be 

 rare less than 30 years ago, and which now seems to defy all the 

 powers that be in Forestry. It is probable, nay, it is likely that the 

 re-wooding of the Colony will be made mostly with European timber ; 

 the valuable Cape trees being of slow growth on the average. We 

 have no less than 1 5 species of that genus, Coraehus, in South Africa. 



