128 Highland Insects. 



Of other Hymenoptera, our largest saw-fly, Cimbexfemorata, 

 and the large wood-ant, Formica congerens, were most con- 

 spicuous. The former, which flies sluggishly round the tops 

 of young birches, could be taken by suddenly and violently 

 hitting the trunk of the tree directly the insect was observed 

 to settle on the top shoots, when it would often fall helplessly 

 into the net ; and the nests of the ants were to be seen, some- 

 times of huge dimensions, agglomerate masses of pine-drop- 

 pings and sticks, swarming with their bellicose tenants. In 

 these nests (not easy to examine, apart from the large size, 

 great numbers, and sharp mandibles of their occupants, on 

 account of their unusually copious and pungent exhalations of 

 formic acid) lives a small species of Tinea — odd dwelling for a 

 delicate moth, — also Homalota parallela and other myrmeco- 

 philous Ooleoptera, and, notably, the larva of the Scotch rose- 

 chafer, Getonia ainea, a species resembling, but duller than, 

 our common rose-beetle. 



Of the Neuroptera, some fine species of dragon-flies were 

 not rare, Gordulegaster annulatus (found also in South Devon), 

 being perhaps the most common, with the southern Libellula 

 A. maculata, and the polar JEschna borealis, and Oordulia arctica. 

 One cannot fail to be struck with the unusual circumstance 

 (in England) of the large size of so many of these note- 

 worthy insects, as, comparatively, but few of the southern forms 

 are large ; or, if so, are common species. 



It is, however, to the Coleoptera that we must look for 

 peculiarities of structure, novelties in appearance and habit, 

 and additions to our lists. Here the wood-feeders, but seldom 

 seen in the metropolitan district, play a conspicuous part, 

 owing to the great abundance of their natural food. One of 

 the most abundant at certain times is a Longicorn (Astinomus 

 cedilis), which could scarcely fail to attract the attention of the 

 most inveterate non-observer, owing to the extraordinary 

 development of its antennas, especially in the male. The 

 accompanying wood-cut, in which the insects are life-size, will 

 show to what a length horns can be carried, even in our 

 temperate clime, unused to developments of frequent occurrence 

 in more tropical regions. The female, readily distinguished 

 by her long ovipositor (with which of course she lays her eggs 

 in fitting chinks of the bark), has the antennas much shorter 

 than the male; a difference easily seen, even in the pupa 

 condition, inasmuch as in that of the latter sex they are carried 

 round in a complete circle, and again curved towards the front, 

 whereas, in the female pupa (figured in the cut) each antenna 

 is only just long enough to form a circle. The larvas, which, 

 like those of all wood-feeding insects, live for a long time in 

 that condition, eat broad galleries on the surface of the solid 



