FAMILY BOSTRICHIDiE. 93 



Bo.strichida 1 . 



Tm.s family is distinguish.! .1 bj the cylindrical form of the insect, and by the front of the 

 pi'-iliorax, which is obliquely truncate. In this climate these insects are s-mall, but within 

 the tropics there are some large species. They all infest forest trees, burrowing eithe* 

 beneath the bark or into the wood. Tie power they possess of penetrating bard substance* 



i< quite remarkable : seasoned timber is easily cut by them, and the lead of the roofs of 

 houses scarcely presents an obstruction. At Turin, cartridges stored in barrels were eaten 

 through, and the leaden balls gnawed an eighth of an inch in depth. The Bostrichvs ca- 

 pucinus, the species on which the genus was first established by GEOFFROY,has been found 

 gnawing type metal, which is considerably harder than lead. Their bodies are hard, and 

 generally black or of a dark rusty brown : the thorax is dilated before ; the antenna? short, 

 and terminate in three large serrated joints. The larva? are wood-eaters also, of a whitish 

 color, wrinkled above, and furnished with six legs. 



Genus APATE. Bostrichus (Oliv.). 



Elytra spinose and refuse posteriorly : antenna? with the second joint elongate, cylindric ; 

 terminal joints forming a perfoliated club. 



Apate basilaris. 

 Color black or dark brown : prothorax rough and punctured ; base of the elytra red, 

 punctured, and the posterior extremity obliquely truncate and furnished with three 

 teeth on each side. Length rather more than one-f >urth of an inch. 



This species is found as far south as Carolina. It perforates the shagbark hickory dia- 

 metrically through the trunk to the very heart, where it undergoes its transformations at 

 the bottom of its burrow (Harris on injurious insects). 



In Italy, the branches of the Morus multicaidis are perforated by the Apate sexdeniata. 

 Many other species commit great havoc in forests, perforating the wood and burrowing 

 beneath the bark, by which the circulation of the sap is cut off. 



Dr. Halueman remarks in a manuscript note, that some strips of hickory which he had 

 employed to confine rose plants were destroyed in two years. The hickory is a tree that 

 suffers much from the attacks of boring insects ; and hoop-poles made of hickory saplings 

 are frequently destroyed, or rendered useless in a few months. Barrel hoops, made of this 

 excellent material, are often attacked, so that much inconvenience, if not actual loss, may 

 be the result. The proper remedy seems to be the immersion of the poles in water, or 

 storing them in cellars, during the deposition of the eggs. The latter mode is sometimes 

 adopted, but the former would have the advantage of destroying young grubs already 

 deposited. 



