234- INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



sects. We learn from Mr. Marsham, that the grub of 

 B. splendida was ascertained to have existed in the wood 

 of a deal table more than twenty years a . — In this enu- 

 meration of timber-eating beetles, I must not forget the 

 Fabrician genera, Anobium and Ptilinus, because of one 

 of them [Anobium pertinax) Linne complains " terebra- 

 vit et destruxit sedilia mea b ;" and I can renew the 

 same complaint against A. striatum, which not only has 

 destroyed my chairs, but also picture-frames, and 

 has perforated in every direction the deal floor of my 

 chamber, from which it annually emerges through 

 little round apertures in great numbers. — The utility of 

 entomological knowledge in economics was strikingly 

 exemplified, when the great naturalist just mentioned, 

 at the desire of the king of Sweden, traced out the 

 cause of the destruction of the oak-timber in the royal 

 dock-yards; and, having detected the lurking culprit 

 under the form of a beetle, {Jbymexylon navale, F.,) by 

 directing the timber to be immersed during the time of 

 the metamorphosis of that insect and its season of ovipo- 

 sition, furnished a remedy which effectually secured it 

 from its future attacks . — No coleopterous insects are 

 more singular than those that belong to the genus Pau- 

 sas, L. ; and one of them at least, remarkable for emit- 

 ting a phosphoric light from the globes of its antennas, 

 is also a timber-feeder d . — Amongst the Hymenoptera 

 there are many insects that injure us in this department. 

 The species of the genus Sirex, probably all of them in 

 their larva state, have no appetite but for ligneous food. 



a In Linn. Tram. x. 399. h Syst. Nat. 565. 2. 



c Smith's Introduction to Botany, Pref. xv. 

 d Afzelius in Linn. Trans, iv. 261. 



