THE PRIONIANS. 



95 



smaller groups and genera, the peculiarities of which cannot 

 be particularly pointed out in a work of this kind. 



The Prionians, or Pmonid^e, derive their name from a 

 Greek word signifying a saw, which has been applied to 

 them either because the antennae, in most of these beetles, 

 consists of flattened joints, projecting internally somewhat 

 like the teeth of a saw, or on account of their upper jaws, 

 which sometimes are very long and toothed within. It is 

 said that some of the beetles thus armed can saw off large 

 limbs by seizing them between their jaws, and flying or 

 whirling sidewise round the enclosed limb, till it is completely 

 divided. The largest insects of the Capricorn tribe belong to 

 this famrfy, some of the tropical species measuring five or six 

 inches in length, and one inch and a half or two inches in 

 breadth. Their larvse are broader and more flattened than 

 the grubs of the other Capricorn-beetles, and are provided 

 with six very short legs. When about to be transformed, 

 they collect a quantity of their chips around them, and make 

 therewith an oval pod or cocoon, to enclose themselves. 



Our largest species is the broad-necked Prionus (Fig. 44), 

 Prionus laticollis* of Drury, its 

 first describer. It is of a long 

 oval shape and of a pitchy-black 

 color. The jaws, though short, 

 are very thick and strong ; the an- 

 tennae are stout and saw-toothed 

 in the male, and more slender in 

 the other sex ; the thorax is short 

 and wide, and armed on the lat- 

 eral edges with three teeth ; the 

 wing-covers have three slightly 

 elevated lines on each of them, 

 and are rough with a multitude 

 of large punctures, which run to- 

 It measures 



Fig. 44. 



gether 



irregularly 



from one inch and one 



* Prionus hrevicomis of Fubncius. 



