m.] J21 
re often to be seen swarming about fresh ash logs ; they arrive on the wing, 
referring the warm sunshine of the early morning for their flight, and often 
ravel considerable distances. They bore very rapidly into the bark. The female 
ommeuces the galleiy by boring obliquely towards the wood, usually in a 
lightly upward direction, in large timber choosing the deepest part of a crevice 
f the bark ; in younger wood a knot or other irregularity determines the preference, 
3 that, unless the frass lies about the aperture, they are difiScult to detect, 
rsually before the female beetle has quite buried itself in the bark, the male 
rrives, and is waiting to enter the burrow ; if not, the female bores down to the 
•ood, and there awaits his coming ; and I believe I have met with burrows 
Qcompleted because the male insect did not appear. In a few days the two beetles 
re to be found rapidly extending the gallery in both directions from the aperture 
f entry, close to the wood and usually slightly in it, and transversely to its fibres. 
I suspect each of the beetles excavates a branch, but I have found no means of 
Dserving them at work, as opening the gallery always stops them ; and it is 
jssible that the female does the greater part of the excavation, since I have 
^ways found her further from the aperture of entry when both were in the same 
ranch of the burrow ; the male is also oftener at its opening, and eggs are laid 
ong each as rapidly as it is formed. Not unfrequently the branches of the 
illery are of very unequal length, so much so that sometimes there is practically 
ily one branch, possibly both beetles working together. Undoubtedly the greater 
irt of the excavated material is eaten ; and I find that in captivity the beetles 
ill hve a long time with fresh ash bark, though without it they soon die. Most 
sects on their escape from the pupal state contain their eggs ready to be laid and 
jquiring only fertilization, but in these, as in many more active Coleoptera, the 
^gs are developed after attaining the perfect state. In the case of H. frawini the 
male is often bulkier when the bunx)w is half completed than on entering it, 
id the eggs laid by a single beetle must often exceed in aggregate mass the 
iginal bulk of the female. The domestic habits and family relations of these 
setles deserve further attention. The following suggestive experiment was made : 
burrow was opened, in which some few eggs had been laid ; each beetle was then 
ockaded by a bit of bark in a branch of the burrow, and for each sufficient space 
as left for air and the discharge of frass. A week after, each beetle had eaten a 
irrower bun-ow just long enough to hold it, merely to sustain life, contrasting with 
e wider burrow outside ; but no eggs had been laid. 
The eggs are laid along both sides of the burrows, usually at very regular 
tervals, in little hollows dug out to receive them, leaving the gallery of full size 
r the beetles within it. They are covered with a gummy material, which soon 
its a coating of finer frass. These eggs being laid in rotation, form a good series 
1* observing the development of the lai-v» within the egg, the first being often 
.tched and the young grub boring into the bark before the last is laid. The eggs 
id in one biin-ow vary from 15 to 40 or 50, or even fiO to 100. The gallery 
finished and the eggs laid in from ten to twenty days. During the ejection of the 
iss, particles adhere by a gniiimy matter, and form an operculum to the mouth of 
e burrow, leaving only a minute opening for frass, which on the completion of 
e burrow is stopped up. Both beetles then usually die in the burrow; the 
male always does so. The dead beetles may still bo found lying in the burrows 
ter several years. 
