SHORT -HORNED WOOD-BORERS. 
145 
lobed. Small insects, of an oblong linear form, with puncto-striate 
elytra, and usually of a shining black or brown color. Theyjbrm a 
connecting link between the Curculionidse and the Scolytidse, being 
mostly sub-cortical and lignivorous in their habits. The live following 
genera are represented in the N. A. fauna : Cossonus, Clair., 6 species; 
Rhyneolus, Creutz, 7 species ; Dryopthorus, Schupp, 1 species ; Lymantis, 
Gyll., 1 species, and Phlceophagm, Sch., 1 species. 
Tribe XVII. 
SHORT-HORNED WOOD-BORERS. 
Lignivora brevicornia. Xylophaga, Latreille. 
This tribe is composed of small beetles of a short and nearly cylindri- 
cal form, and of a brown or blackish color. The antennae are very short, 
often not much longer than the head, slightly elbowed, and always ter- 
minating in a knob. In many species the abdomen is truncated, or cut 
off obliquely behind, and terminated with a coronet of short spines. 
The larvae are scarcely distinguishable from those of the Curculionidse, 
being soft, white, footless grubs, usually lying in a curyed position. 
They differ^ however, from the great majority of the larvai of the Cur- 
culios in their wood-boring habits. Indeed, they are pre-eminently the 
wood-borers of the whole order of Coleoptera, no other tribe vying with 
them in this respect except the Long-h'orned borers, to be hereafter de- 
scribed. Though small in size, rarely exceeding a quarter of an inch in 
length, and often less than half that length, they are tolerably numer- 
ous in species, and often excessively abundant in individuals. They in- 
habit various kinds of trees, but mostly the pines, which they have been 
known to damage considerably in this country, whilst in some parts of 
Europe they have destroyed whole forests by their enormous multipli- 
cation. They are comprised in the single family of Scolytid*. 
Family L1X. SCOLYT1DA. 
Named from the genus Scolytus, Geoff., derived from the Greek sko- 
lupto — to denude or lacerate. 
—19 
