numbers of specimens of a black Buprestis (_B. octoguttata_) in
the old stumps of pine-trees left standing in the ground, hard outside
but soft within, where the wood is as pliable as tinder. In this
yielding substance, which has a resinous aroma, the larvae spend their
life. For the metamorphosis they leave the unctuous regions of the
centre and penetrate the hard wood, where they hollow out oval
recesses, slightly flattened, measuring from twenty-five to thirty
millimetres[1] in length. The major axis of these cells is always
vertical. They are continued by a wide exit-path, sometimes straight,
sometimes slightly curved, according as the tree is to be quitted
through the section above or through the side. The exit-channel is
nearly always bored completely; the window by which the insect escapes
opens directly upon the outside world. At most, in a few rare
instances, the grub leaves the Buprestis the trouble of piercing a
leaf of wood so thin as to be translucent. But, if easy paths are
necessary to the insect, protective ramparts are no less needed for
the safety of the nymphosis; and the larva plugs the liberating
channel with a fine paste of masticated wood, very different from the
ordinary sawdust. A layer of the same paste divides the bottom of the
chamber from the low-ceilinged gallery, the work of the grub's active
life. Lastly, the magnifying-glass reveals upon the walls of the cell
a tapestry of woody fibres, very finely divided, standing erect and
closely shorn, so as to make a sort of velvet pile. 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.

[Footnote 1: .975 to 1.17 inch.--_Translator's Note_.]

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. A small Buprestis who ravages the cherry-trees,
_Anthaxia nitidula_, passes his larval existence between the wood and
the bark. When the time comes for changing its shape, the pigmy
concerns itself, like the others, with future and present needs. To
assist the perfect insect, the grub first gnaws the under side of the
bark, leaving a thin screen of cuticle untouched, and then sinks in
the wood a perpendicular well, blocked with unresisting sawdust. That
is on behalf of the future: the frail Buprestis will be able to leave
without