226 



THE UNIVERSE. 



track in the centre of the young boughs in our forest 

 trees. 



In the second category may be ranked the numerous 

 legion of typographers, calcographers, and stenographers, 

 so called from the character of the chisellings with which 

 they so deplorably ornament the surface of wood. Each 

 species invariably draws the same design, so that we can 

 always discover the workman by his Avork without seeing 

 what enemy we have to deal with. 



135. BiMrichiis iiipur/ra/jhtu^. 



1"'G. Bostric/ias dcriiictircatus. 



Almost all these labourers are Coleoptera of very small 

 size, belonging to the genera Bostrichus and Hylesinus. 

 Their teeth, with deadly quickness, cut numerous galleries 

 between the wood and the bark, invading both parts at 

 the same time. These tiny ravagers are often not more 

 than about the sixth of an inch long, and hence, as their 

 bodies are slender in proportion, they only require a very 

 narrow trench to promenade in at their ease. Neverthe- 

 less, as each insect procreates to a great extent, the num- 

 ber of galleries hollowed out by a single family sometimes 

 covers a large part of the surface of a tree, and if the 

 species multiplies round about it, the result of its work is 

 to detach the entire bark, which falls to dust. 



The attentive observations of foresters have shown that 



