THE OAK. 



33 



the great Stag-beetle.* Notwithstanding, how- 

 ever, its abundance in some localities, and its 

 great size, it does no injury, never attacking any 

 but decayed wood. When it has attained its full 



STAG-BEETLE. 



size, it constructs a cocoon of chips of wood, which 

 it glues together by a self-derived cement, and 

 assumes the pupa stage of its existence, when it 

 ceases to eat. The perfect insect, well known as 

 the Stag-beetle, seems to subsist entirely upon 

 fluids, which it laps up by means of its long, pen- 

 cil-like lower jaws and lip. The number of the 

 insects w^hich feed upon the living wood appears 

 to be limited ; but those which reside beneath the 

 bark, without boring into the wood, are much 

 more nmnerous. So great are the ravages some- 

 times committed by one minute beetle {Scolytus 

 pygmceus)^ that it was, not long since, found ne- 

 cessary to cut down, in the Bois de Vincennes 

 near, Paris, 50,000 young Oaks in which they had 



* Lucanus cervus. 



D 



