CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARD A CLASSIFICATION AND BIOLOGY OF THE NORTH 

 AMERICAN CERAMBYCIDJ:. 



LARV^ OF THE PRIONIN^. 



By F. C. Craighead, 

 Entomological Assistant, Forest Insect Investigations, Bureau of Entomotogy. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The need of a study of the cerambycids injurious to forests and 

 forest products in their larval stages for the proper, identification of 

 the species is aU too evident. The larvae of most wood and bark 

 boring insects can be found within their host for the greater part of the 

 year, while the adults occur for but a short time. Again and again 

 correspondents send in to the Bureau of Entomology material under 

 the name of ''worms" or ''grubs" with the statement that these are 

 destructive to the wood and trees and asking what they are and how 

 they can be combated. If the material can not be identified the 

 required information can not be given. 



The writer took up the study of longicorn beetle larvae in 1910, 

 in connection with his work in the Pennsylvania State CoUege, but 

 had little material for study compared to the large series of larvae 

 in the United States National Museum coUections and especially 

 in that made by the Forest Insect Investigations of the Bm^eau of 

 Entomology. The material in the latter coUection has been accumu- 

 lated during the past 24 years by Dr. A. D. Hopldns and other 

 members of the office, especially Messrs. H. E. Burke, W. F. 

 Fiske, and J. L. Webb. ^Ir. Fiske did a great amount of work on 

 the species of the southeastern United States, and his notes are of 

 unusual interest. The more important observations of the different 

 collectors wiU be referred to under each species. 



When the writer undertook this study in the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology in 1912 the collection contained the larvge, authentically 

 determined by Mr. J. L. Webb, of about 50 species. These larvae 

 have been genericaUy treated by Mr. Webb in Technical Series No. 20, 

 Part V, Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, "A Preliminary Synopsis of Cerambycoid Larvae" (1912). 

 This is the first attempt made in the United States to form a synopsis 

 of the family as a whole; but Mr. Webb was handicapped by a rela- 

 tively smaU amount of properly identified material and rarely more 



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