394 ANIMAL LIFE-HISTORIES 



The stages in the Hfe-history may be illustrated by reference 

 to the Long-horned Oak-Beetle (Cerambyx keros, fig. 915), an 

 insect of considerable size. The larva is a yellowish grub, which 

 is practically limbless, though it possesses three pairs of little 

 stumps corresponding to the legs of the adult. It lives in the 

 wood of an old oak, which it tunnels in all directions, and passes 

 into the pupa stage after three or four years. As in most beetles, 

 the pupa is soft, and the outgrowths which are to form the append- 



Fig. 915. — Long-horned Oak-Beetle [Cerambyx heros), i, Adult; 2, pupa: 3, larva. 



ages of the adult project freely at the exterior. After a short 

 period of rest the skin splits and the imago comes out. 



As a rule Beetles do not provide for the welfare of their eggs 

 to anything like the extent which distinguishes the Net- winged 

 Insects, but some of them display considerable solicitude in this 

 direction. An illustration has already been given in the case of 

 the Sacred Scarab (see vol. ii, p. 210). The little leaf- rolling 

 Birch -Weevil {Rhynchites behilce) constructs a receptacle for its 

 eggs in a most ingenious manner (fig. 916), displaying an enor- 

 mous amount of energy. Sharp (in The Cambridge Natural 

 History/) gives the following account of the operation: — 'Tf young 

 birches, or birch bushes from 5 to 10 feet in height, be looked at 

 in the summer, one may often notice that some of the leaves are 



