202 THE UNIVEKSE. 



The name of juiners is given to those legions of insects 

 which, with their powerful mandibles, cut and divide wood, 

 either to nourish themselves with, or to construct little 

 rooms furnished with partitions, and destined to receive 

 their offspring. 



In the first category is found the larva of the goat-moth, 

 a night-moth which sometimes reaches a length of four or 

 five inches, and is thicker than the finger. It gnaws the 

 inside of great trees, and scoops out in their trunks large 

 and long tortuous galleries, which sometimes suffice to kill 

 them. We see that it works all the more zealously because 

 its labour is to satisfy a want; it lives on wood. 



When several of these powerful caterpillars attack an 

 elm at the same time it sinks very rapidly. This insect 

 has sometimes been seen to utterly destroy large avenues 

 of lofty trees: hence the name of Cossus ligniperda (Wood- 

 destroying Cossus) has been given to it. 



This Cossus is unfortunately common enough in France. 

 Frequently while walking in a plantation of elms we can 

 see on the surface of some of these trees holes from which 

 issues saw-dust of moist wood. These are the entrances 

 to the concealed tunnels gnawed by the larva of the 

 dreaded moth. 



The larva of the great Capricornis {Ceramhyx lieros), 

 which mines the interior of ancient oaks, and often injures 

 the most beautiful pieces of carpenter's work, has its back 

 cuirassed with solid wrinkled plates, which serve in it 

 the place Avhich the knee-pads occupy in the case of the 



the hiuge. Another is tlie Mygale ccementaria (LatreiUe), found iu the south of 

 France. An allied species, the Mygale sauvagesii, is found in Corsica. One of 

 the most extraordinary spiders is that found by the Rev, Revett Shephei-d in the 

 fen ditches of Norfolk, which forms a raft of weeds about three inclies in diameter, 

 probably held together by silken cords, on which it floats about for the purpose 

 of seizing drowning insects. — Kirby and Spence, Introd. i. 425. — Tr. 



