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Some Longicorns, especially certain Prionidae, offer an exception to the rule that the sexes of beetles do not differ in colour. Most of these insects are large and splendidly coloured. Pyrodes pulcherrimus, in which the sexes differ conspicuously, has been described by Mr. Bates in 'Transact. Ent. Soc. 1869, p. 50.
In these excursions they exhibit a strength of wing and sustained power of flight, such as is possessed by no other class of beetles with which I am acquainted, but which is obviously indispensable for the due performance of the useful functions they discharge. The Coco-nut Beetle. In the luxuriant forests of Ceylon the extensive family of Longicorns and Passalidæ live in destructive abundance.
The Buprestes, as zealous as the Longicorns in the destruction of trees, whether sound or ailing, tell us the same tale as the Cerambyx- and Saperda-beetles. Her larva gnaws the interior of the trunk.
Mohnike confined himself chiefly to the beetles, and had formed a magnificent collection during many years residence in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Japan, and Amboyna. The Japanese collection was especially interesting, containing both the fine Carabi of northern countries, and the gorgeous Buprestidae and Longicorns of the tropics.
Of insects I obtained a considerable number of interesting beetles, including many fine longicorns, among which was the largest and handsomest species of the genus Glenea yet discovered.
Many Eastern species of Longicorns of the genus Oberea, when on the wing exactly resemble Tenthredinidæ, and many of the small species of Hesthesis run about on timber, and cannot be distinguished from ants. There is one genus of South American Longicorns that appears to mimic the shielded bugs of the genus Scutellera.
During the whole of my stay, however, insects never became plentiful. My clearing produced me a few fine, longicorns and Buprestidae, different from any I had before seen, together with several of the Amboyna species, but by no means so numerous or, so beautiful as I had found in that small island.
This quilted lining, of which the Cerambyx of the Oak showed us the first example, is, it seems to me, pretty often employed by the wood-eaters, Buprestes as well as Longicorns. After these migrants, which travel from the centre of the tree to the surface, we will mention some others which from the surface plunge into the interior.
Although T had already been working this shot daily for two months and a half, and had obtained over 800 species of Coleoptera, this day's work added 32 new ones. Among these were 4 Longicorns, 2 Caribidae, 7 Staphylinidae, 7 Curculionidae, 2 Copridae, 4 Chrysomelidae, 3 Heteromera, 1 Elates, and 1 Buprestis.
On the under sides of the trunks clung numbers of smaller or more sluggish Longicorns, while on the branches at the edge of the clearing others could be detected sitting with outstretched antenna ready to take flight at the least alarm. It was a glorious spot, and one which will always live in my memory as exhibiting the insect-life of the tropics in unexampled luxuriance.
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