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retreats, enable them to thrust forward by degrees the other segments (Ent Rep., 1872, 

 p. 36). _ 



The head is the box of tools with which they saw and cut their way through the 

 wood ; their work " is done slowly but effectively, and their gnawing teeth, though slow 

 in action, are as resistless as the mordant tooth of time." 



About midsummer these busy little carpenters who have never seen the light of day, 

 unless by accident, strike — not for higher wages but for a higher stage of existence; they 

 labour no more, but in the innermost recesses of their living homes fold themselves up 

 snugly for their pupa sleep. At first the nymph is soft and whitish, but gradually it 

 hardens and darkens till at last it lies enwrapped in a filmy veil, beneath which all the 

 external parts of the future beetle are visible. The wings and the legs are folded calmy 

 on the breast, while the long antennae are turned back against the sides of the body and 

 then tucked up between the legs. When at length it has become matured, it breaks its 

 slumbers, forces its way through the bark, and comes out of its dark and narrow retreat to see 

 the world and enjoy for the first time the glorious light of day and the pleasures of legs 

 and wings, and love and passion, and to propagate its race. 



Clytus pictus Drury, or the Painted Clytus, is another of our common species. Its 

 form is very similar to that of C. speciosus, and it varies from six-tenths to three-fourths 

 of an inch in length. Harris thus describes it : It is velvet black, and ornamented with 

 transverse yellow bands, of which there are three on the head, four on the thorax, and six 

 on the wing-covers, the tips of which are also edged with yellow. The first and second 

 bands, on each wing-cover are nearly straight ; the third band forms a V, or united with 

 the opposite one, a W, as in speciosus ; the fourth is also angled, and runs upwards on the 

 inner margin of the wing-cover towards the scutel ; the fifth is broken or interrupted by 

 a longitudinal elevated line, and the sixth is arched and consists of three little spots. 

 The antennae are dark brown, and the legs are rust-red. 



Clytus Bobinice, Forster. — According to Walsh, the male of this species differs from 

 C. pictus in having much longer and stouter antennae, and in having its body tapered 

 behind to a blunt point, while the female is not distinguishable at all. This insect does 

 great injury to the locust and acacia trees, and appears in the perfect state in September. 

 Harris confounds this with Clytus pictus; in fact, it was long considered by Entomologists 

 to be identical with it. It has sometimes been known as Clytus Jlexuosus, Fab. 



During comparatively late years Robinice has been extending its sphere of operations. 

 For a long time it was known only in New York. Some thirty years ago it appeared in 

 Chicago, and in 1863 it was seen two hundred miles further west. In 1855 it was first 

 observed in Montreal ; in 1862 it was very destructive to the locust trees around Toronto; 

 In 1873 Mr. E. B. Reed saw it in enormous numbers in London, Ont. Now it seems to 

 be quite at home in all parts of Ontario. Harris, speaking evidently of this, though 

 under the name of C. pictus, says: "In the month of September these beetles gather on 

 the locust trees, where they may be seen glittering in the sunbeams, with their gorgeous 

 livery of black velvet and gold, coursing up and down the trunks in pursuit of their mates, 

 or to drive away their rivals, and stopping every now and then to salute those they meet, 

 with a rapid bowing of the shoulders, accompanied by a creaking sound, indicative of 

 recognition or defiance. Having paired, the female, attended by her partner, creeps over 

 the bark, searching the crevices with her antennae, and dropping therein her snow-white 

 eggs, in clusters of seven or eight together, till her whole stock is safely stored. The eggs 

 are soon hatched, and the grubs immediately burrow into the bark, devouring the soft 

 inner substance that suffices for their nourishment until the approach of winter, during 

 which they remain at rest in a torpid state. In the spring they bore through the soft 

 wood, more or less deeply into the trunk, the general course of their winding and irregular 

 passages being in an upward direction from their place of entrance. For a time they cast 

 their chips out of their holes as fast as they are made, but after a while the passage becomes 

 clogged, and the burrow more or less filled with the coarse and fibrous fragments of wood, 

 to get rid of which the grubs are often obliged to open new holes through the bark. The 

 seat of their operations is known by the oozing of the sap and the dropping of the saw- 

 dust from the holes. The bark around the part attacked begins to swell, and in a few 

 years the trunks and limbs will become disfigured and weakened by large porous tumours, 



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