BEETLES. 329 



antennsB; the stridulating plate on the mesonotum is divided by a smooth portion 

 or by a furrow. These insects frequent flowers, seeming to prefer small flowers which 

 grow in clusters, such as those of Spircea. 



According to Le Conte and Horn's Classification of the Coleoptera of North 

 America, from which work many of the anatomical characters of genera mentioned in 

 this paper have been taken, the genus Leptura itself has acute mandibles fringed on 

 the inner margin, long elytra, oblique or horizontal front, first joint of hind tarsi 

 without brush-like sole, last ventral segment of the male not excavated, antennas with- 

 out poriferous spaces, and hind coxa3 not contiguous. There are over seventy-five 

 species of Leptura in North America, north of Mexico. Their larvse feed upon 

 decaying wood. L. canadensis is dull brownish black with the anterior part of the 

 elytra dull red, and the antennae yellow and black. It is about 0.6 of an inch long. 



Typocerns differs from Leptura in having large poriferous spaces on the antennse. 

 T. fugax, a common species in the United States, has reddish brown elytra, each of 

 which has four more or less prominent triangular yellow spots. The prothorax and 

 body beneath are nearly black, densely clothed with yellow pubescence ; the antennae 

 are dull black, the legs reddish brown. Length about 0.5 of an inch. 



Bhagium has the first joint of the posterior tarsi hairy beneath, and the presternum 

 prominent between the coxae. 7?. Uneatmn, the only North American species, is from 

 0.4 to 0.7 of an inch long, and is rusty gray, finely mottled with black. Each elytron 

 has three slightly elevated longitudinal ridges, whence the name lineatimi. The larva 

 of M. lineatum is a flattened, yellowish-white, somewhat hairy grub, about an inch 

 long. Its head is as large and as wide as its prothoracic segment ; the mesothoracic 

 and metathoraoic segments equal in width the prothoracic segment, but are slightly 

 wider than the abdominal segments. This larva is very common under the bark of 

 pine logs, where it burrows about, and finally constructs a nest or cell in which to 

 pupate. These cells, in which pupation takes place, are built of woody threads or 

 fibres arranged in an oval ring between the wood and the loosened bark ; the cell, 

 which is usually a little over an inch in longest diameter, is lined with reddish bark- 

 dust. The beetle emerges from the pupal state in autumn, but remains in its cell 

 until the following spring, when it gnaws its way out ; this is a somewhat exceptional 

 mode of hibernation for Cerambycidae, most of which spend the winter as larvae. 

 i?. mordax, in Europe, copulate in April and May ; the eggs are deposited in clefts of 

 bark, the larv« reaching full growth and pupating the same year. Some of the 

 European species of Rhagium attack, besides pine, the bark of birch and oak ; M. 

 lineatum thus far has been recorded only from conifers — from pine, spruce, fir, and 

 hemlock. Remaining torjjid as these beetles do throughout the winter, in their cells 

 beneath the bark, they are particularly susceptible to the attacks of parasites : fungi 

 kill a large number of them ; others succumb to the attacks of mites ( Gamasus 

 coleoptratoi'um), and specimens are not rarely found which are clothed with these 

 parasites so as to hide the beetle entirely from view ; and three species of Ichneu- 

 monidae and one of Braconidae are known to attack B. indigator, of Europe, a rather 

 large number of hymenopterous parasites for a single species of beetle. 



The genus Necydalis is characterized sufficiently by its very short elytra, from 

 beneath which the long wings always project, never being folded beneath the elytra, 

 as is the case in the Staphylinidae, and in a few other genera of brachelytrous longi- 

 corns. Only three species are found in the United States, and their life history is not 

 known. N. major, the species figured, is European. 



