LIBRARY

COLEOPTERA 589
genera (Jpochus Lee., Dorcadz'on Dalman, Moneilema Say, Plectrura Mannerheim),
but are normally well developed, enabling powerful flight. Elytra usually
cover the body but leave the posterior tip of abdomen exposed in a few cases.
Legs long, slender, smooth, spined or variously ornamented or hairy. Coxre
variable in size, shape, and position. Tibial spurs minute to large. Tarsi long,
five-segmented, some dilated, hairy or pubes·
cent, segment III bilobed, segment IV greatly
reduced, usually fused with V. Claws strong.
Abdomen large, the posterior segments of the
female sometimes greatly elongated for egg
laying; with five or six visible sternites. Larvre
cerambycoid type (fleshy, long, straight, and
subcylindrical), apodous or with vestigial legs,
smooth or wrinkled and often pubescent, distinctly
segmented. Head small and with
powerful mandibles. Prothorax large. Terminal
segment often longest. Pleural or asteria!
disks may be present on the pleurites. Because
of the large thorax these larvre are
frequently referred to as round-headed borers.
They have long been used as an article of
food by primitive peoples,!
The adults are diurnal or nocturnal and
frequent dead and living small woody plants,
shrubs, and trees as well as flowers. They are
mostly rather slow and sluggish excepting
during the heat of the day when the flower
visitors are as active as bees and wasps that
some of them mimic to a remarkable degree.
In such a large group many diverse forms
and peculiarities in habits occur. Sexual dimorphism
is apparent in many species. The
females are often the larger, but the males
nearly always have much longer antennre.
FIG. 200. The black pine sawyer.
Monochamus soutellatus (Say),
a common long-horned beetle inhabiting
the coniferous forests of
North America. (From Insects of
Western North America.)
Odorous species are represented by the European musk beetle, Aromia
moschata (Linn.), metallic green, coppery, and blue, 20-30 mm. long, which
has an "attar of roses" scent. It breeds in dead willows. Species in a great many
genera stridulate.
The eggs are usually laid on or inserted into the tissues of the host plant. This
latter feat is accomplished by cutting slits in the wood by means of the sharp
mandibles and then inserting the egg with the pointed ovipositor. Egg laying is
1 The larVa! of the larger species have generally been an article of diet, In America those of
Prionus were considered a gre