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COLEOPTERA OF THE LIVERPOOL DISTRICT. 



JOHX \V. ELLIS, L.R.C.P., L.R.CS.E., F.E.S., 

 Liverpool; Hotiorary Secretary, Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society. 



PART XI:-LONGICORNlA. 



(Read before the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society, April 25th, 1887.) 



The beetles belonging to the group Longicornia have received the 

 popular name of • longhorns ' from the extreme length of these 

 appendages, more especially in the male sex, in the typical species of 

 the group. In Astiiiomus cedilis, for instance, a species found 

 occasionally in the pine forests of Scotland, the antennae are four or 

 five times the length of the body, and when the beetle flies, are carried 

 trailing behind it. The group is one very rich in species, including 

 many of the giants of the insect world, such, for instance, as the 

 great PrionidcE and Harlequin beetles of America. In Britain, however, 

 the group is very poorly represented, only about fifty-five species 

 being included in the latest catalogues, and while some of these are 

 extremely rare, others have most probably been introduced from the 

 continent of Europe or from North America in timber. The insects 

 live in their larval state, often for several years before arriving at 

 maturity, in the interior of trees, doing great damage to the wood, 

 and not confining themselves to the bark and surface layers of the 

 wood, as is more frequently the case with other timber-feeding 

 beetles. Depending as they do, then, for sustenance on trees, more 

 especially oak, willow, and the species of Finns, they are more fre- 

 quently found in the neighbourhood of the larger woods and forests, 

 and in a sparsely-timbered district like ours their occurrence in 

 numbers or in variety of species cannot be expected ; and, indeed, 

 I am at present only able to record seven species as having been 

 captured in tlie neighbourhood, though I feel sure that careful 

 examination of the Eastham and Bromborough woods on the 

 Cheshire side of the river, and of those at Croxteth on the Lanca- 

 shire side, would add many species to our local fauna. 



The perfect insects are in the habit of sunning themselves on 

 flowers, more especially on those of the larger Umbelliferje, but also 

 on the clusters of Spircea ulmaria (meadow-sweet) and mountain-ash, 

 and on such plants when growing in the rides or on the outskirts of 

 woods is the best place for the collector to obtain ' long-horns.' 



July 1887. P 



