148 
THE ORDER OF COLEOPTERA. 
emerging, in the beetle-form, through round holes about large enough 
to admit a common knitting needle, and giving the tree the appearance, 
as Mr. Riley aptly remarks, of having been peppered with fine shot.* 
Tiube xvhl 
LONG-HORNED WOOD-BORERS. 
IAgrmora longicornia. Eucerata, Westwood. 
This large and conspicuous tribe of beetles is usually designated by 
the Latin word Longicornes, meaning long horns, in reference to their 
most striking character, namely, the great length of their antennae, 
which, with a’very few exceptions, are considerably longer than the 
head and thorax combined, and frequently longer than the whole body. 
They are sometimes strictly filiform, but usually setaceous, or tapering. 
Notwithstanding their great length, they very rarely have more than 
the normal number of joints, which, in the Coleopterous order of insects, 
is eleven. The genus Prionus, however, furnishes a remarkable excep- 
tion in this respect, some of the species having as many as thirty joints 
in their antennae. The tarsi are always four jointed, spongy beneath, 
and the third joint strongly bilobed, characters which readily distin- 
guish them from the predaceous ground-beetles which also have the an- 
tennae slender and considerably elongated. 
A few of them have the wing-cases either much shorter, or much nar- 
rower than the abdomen, but in these instances, the wings are not folded 
up under them, as in the short-winged Staphylinidae, but lie extended 
and exposed upon the abdomen. They are strong flyers, but do not 
readily take to flight, and are, therefore, easily captured, though they 
run with considerable rapidity, their legs being in harmony with the 
general elongation of their bodies and their antennae. The thighs are 
very commonly clavate or enlarged at the end, giving room for an un- 
usual development of the muscles of locomotion. 
Many of these beetles, when captured, make a squeaking sound, called 
stridulation, by rapidly moving the prothorax upon the mesothorax. 
This faculty seems to be possessed by all of the sub-family of Lamiides, 
and by many of the Cerambycides, but to be absent in the Prionides. 
Many of these insects are known to be nocturnal in their habits, and 
are sometimes seen flying about our lamps in the evening; but others, 
* This inseot baa been described by Mr. Riley under the specific name caryte ; but I can find no suf- 
ficieut grounds for regarding it as distiuot from tbe 4-sjnnosus, of Say. The only positive difference 
stated is the absence of dentieulatious at the tip of the elytra, and these, though very minute, arc dis- 
tinct in the specimens which I have examined, of both sexes. The absence of certain details in Mr. 
Say’s description can scarcely be adduced in proof of difference of species, since it was evidently Mr. 
Say’s rule to jjractico the greatest brevity in his descriptions, consistent with what ho deemed a suffi- 
cient identification of the species. 
