170 HYMENOPTERA. 



in appearance, frequently lifting up the hind end of their body. 

 The larvse are like those of the Ground - beetles, but have a 

 relatively larger head. SomO' live upon dung and decomposing 

 animal matter, others upon insects. The Devil's Coach-horse 

 {Ocypus olens) may be taken as a type. 



Shot-borbr Beetles (Xylebords dispar and X. saxesexi). 



These beetles belong to the family ticnjytidw. Both species 

 attack and burrow into the wood of fruit-trees, forming long 

 tunnels. The commoner species is Xylehorus dispar. They are 

 short broad beetles, shiny black iu colour, with pitchy red 

 elytra, and covered with a yellowish pubescence : the females 

 are from |- to -J- of an inch long ; the males, which are rare, 

 about j-V to jJ^ of an inch. The beetles bore their way right 

 into the wood of young trees as well as old ones, and in these 

 tunnels the white larvfe are found in JNIay and June, feeding 

 upon some fungoid growth (Ambrosia) that lines the tunnels. 

 The grubs pupate in the same place, and the beetles occur in 

 September placed like a row of shot in the holes, and there 

 they remain all the winter. X. scureseni can be told from 

 X. dispar by the thorax and elytra being more oblong in the 

 male and narrower in the female. The males of both have 

 their wings atrophied. Various other related forms of the genus 

 Sco/i/tiis attack the bark of forest and fruit trees. 



Prevention and Eniwdies. — All infested trees should be cut 

 down and burnt in such attacks, so as to stop the pests from 

 spreading. Eemedies are practically useless. 



HYMENOPTERA, 



OR Ants, Bees, AVasps, Sawflies, Gall-flies, 

 Ichneumons, eto. 



The Hymenoptera include the Ants, Bees, "Wasps, Sawflies, 

 Ichneumon Flies, Chalcid Flies, Sirices, and Gall-flies. Of 



