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THE YOUNG NATUBALIST. 



ash, birch, alder, and maple, I also found one in poplar. The larva is curved 

 and occurs frequently near Manchester and Llangollen. It is stated that 

 Linnaeus never saw this insect, although he believed such an insect existed. 



The family of Lymexylonim is composed of some of the most remarkable 

 Coleopterous insects discovered. The mandibles are short, thick, and obtuse- 

 ly bidentate; the body is linear, and of a moderately soft consistence; the 

 antennas are short ; and the maxillary palpi of the males are furnished with 

 very remarkable appendages, of which the use is unknown. 



Of one species of this group, Lymexyloxi navale, a single specimen 

 was captured by Mr. J. H. Griesbach, in Windsor Forest, on an oak tree in 

 July, 1829, and in consequence of no more occurring for nearly fifty years, 

 it was erased from the British list, as it was supposed to be an introduced 

 specimen from the Continent of Europe. Although it is a very great pleasure 

 to every student of nature to discover new species, I am in one way sorry to 

 have to record it as a British insect. A few years since I found this dread- 

 ful pest in Dunham Park, at rest on the root end of a recently felled oak, 

 within a few inches of the centre, which was cracked. It was a female, with 

 the apical abdominal segments protruded and inserted into one of the cracks 

 of the tree, thus serving the purpose of an ovipositor — it was probably de- 

 positing ova. It very much resembles a brown dipterous insect, for which I 

 was very near mistaking it. However, I was too impatient or too eager to 

 seize the prize, or perhaps I might have secured the ova. In the course of a 

 few weeks I captured four other females within a few inches of where I found 

 the first. The fifth specimen I gave to my valued friend Mr. Joseph Side- 

 botham. 



During the next season, I found an oak tree which had been cut down, 

 perforated with insects which I thought were probably Lymexylon. I com- 

 municated my opinion to Mr. J. Sidebotham, and we made arrangements to 

 attack the tree with tomahawks. After cutting into the tree transversely 

 about ten or twelve inches, we were rewarded by the discovery of a few of 

 both sexes of the perfect insect and a few larvae. As the season advanced, 

 Mr. Sidebotham forwarded me a note stating that he had caught one with his 

 hat, whilst it was flying. I have since taken this species freely, and worked 

 out its history. The larva is very long and blender, with the first segment 

 after the head dilated, and the terminal segment produced in a lobe, it is 

 about an inch or one inch and a quarter in length. They bore holes from 

 about one-twentieth to one-tenth of an inch in diameter, transversely into 

 large oak trees in Dunham Park ; and it is very probable that some of those 

 giant oaks have had their existence terminated by this species. The perfect 



