234 
Callidium.- 
-INSEGTS.- 
-Sai'Kkua. 
rather from British Columbia, for I believe the speci- 
men came from the continent. 
Plate 3, fig. 9, .shows a South African species of 
the fine genus Tragocephala ; it is the T. comitessa, 
The Tragocephalce are fine African insects. Phos- 
phorus Lucia and Phosphorus Jansoni, especially the 
latter, are most striking insects when fresh. The 
beautifully delicate yellow plush, and the black sur- 
roundings, form a fine contrast. 
Sir James Emerson Tennent* records the ravages 
made on the cocoa-nut trees of Ceylon by a large 
species of Longicornus beetle [Batocera ruhus), called 
by the Singhalese Cooroominya. The larva of this 
“ makes its way into the stems of the younger trees, 
and after perforating them in all directions, it forms a 
cocoon of the gnawed wood and sawdust, in which it 
reposes during its sleep as a pupa, till the arrival of the 
period when it emerges as a perfect beetle.” Notwith- 
standing the repulsive aspect of the large pulpy larvre 
of these beetles, they are esteemed a luxury by the 
Malabar Coolies. Sir James quotes a paper by Mr. 
Capper in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Ceylon 
for May, 1845, on the ravages perpetrated by these 
beetles. Mr. Capper had recently passed through several 
cocoa-nut plantations, varying in extent from twenty 
to one hundred and fifty acres, and about two to three 
years old ; in these he did not discover a single young 
tree untouched by this destructive Longicorn beetle. 
Of the boring powers of some of the Longicorns I 
have had most satisfactory proof. I have seen part 
of a cistern lined with lead, through which a speci- 
men of Callidium bajtdum had bored. The grub or 
pupa happened to be in the wood when the cistern 
was constructed, and the creature with its upward 
Fig. 133. 
tendencies ate through the wood, and actually per- 
forated the lead lining of the cistern. It was only 
found out by the leaking of the water. The natives 
of King George’s Sound were found, amongst other 
grubs, to be fond of those of a beetle described by Mr. 
* Ceylon ; an Account of the Island, Physical, Historical, 
and Topographical, &c., vol. i., p. 249. 
Newman, and which he named Bardistus cibarius. It 
is represented in fig. 133. According to Captain (now 
Governor Sir) George Grey, the grub is named Barde. 
Bardistus is a native of King George’s Sound, where it 
seems to be very abundant, forming a favourite article 
of food with the natives. It is eaten in its imago as 
well as its larva and pupa states. It is found in the 
Xanthorhea. 
The larva of a Longicorn beetle of the genus Aga- 
panthia {A. suturalis — Fald) has been observed and 
described by M. E. Perris.* The accompanying 
figures (figs. 134 and 135) are carefully copied from 
his plate. 
Fig. 134. Fig. 135. 
Larva. 
This larva lives in the stems of the Melilotus macro- 
rhiza, one of those yellow trefoils which grow in the 
clayey and rather moistish parts of Belgium. It is of a 
yellowish-white colour, and is distinguished by the 
dorsal protuberances and pectoral swellings from others 
of the genus which have been observed. The perfect 
insect comes out in June. The female deposits a single 
egg on the tender stem of the trefoil. The young larva, 
when hatched, pierces its way with its jaws into the 
medullary canal, and hollows out a gallery, eating its 
way. This gallery it traverses with great ease; the 
protuberances of its back act as legs or props, where- 
with to push against the wall. In April or May it 
turns into the nymph or pupa state, and escapes by a 
round hole which it pierces in the plant. The perfect 
insect is a narrowish, greenish bronze beetle, the suture 
and side margins of the elytra being clothed with grey- 
ish-yellow downy hairs. 
The apple-tree in the United States suffers much 
from the attack of the yellowish or white cylindrical 
grub of the Saperda bivittata, so called from the white 
stripes on its elytra. 
Dr. Asa Fitchj" tells us that the Winged beetle 
appears early in June. Among the means provided by 
the Author of nature for destroying this borer, and 
keeping it from becoming unduly multiplied, the 
Woodpeckers, especially the Downy woodpecker, Pfews 
pubescens L., stands conspicuous. And yet another 
American writer^ insists on the necessity of the orchard- 
keeper carrying on a war of extermination against this 
bird, which, from the account of Dr. Fitch, appears to 
be in reality one of his most useful friends. 
* Mgmoires de la Societd royale des Sciences de Lidge, vol. 
X. p. 244, PI. 5, figs. 37, 46 ; 1855. 
t Report on the noxious, beneficial, and other insects in the 
State of New York, p. 13. Albany, U.S., 1855. 
t Kirkland; Zoology (Ohio), p. 179. 
