On the left hand is an opened cocoon of an English beetle belonging to the genus Rhagium. Like the last-mentioned insect, the Rhagium prefers long fibres to short chips, though it does not use them of such a length as the Rhyncophorus. The cocoon is generally made between the bark and the wood, from the latter of which the fibres are torn. In consequence of the mode of structure, the cocoon is pale straw colour, while the hollow in which it rests is quite dark. [Illustration: Cocoon of Rhagium. Rhyncophorus and cocoon.] All entomologists are familiar with the pretty little wasp-beetle (_Clytus arietis_), which derives its popular name from the wasp-like colours of its body. In the larval state it is one of the carpenter-grubs, and may be found in posts, fir-trees, and similar localities. In this country, although plentiful, it is not numerous enough to do much harm; but in Ceylon, a closely-allied species is one of the pests of the island. It is popularly known by the title of coffee-borer, from its habit of boring into the stems of the coffee-plant. The landowner looks with absolute horror on this pretty but destructive insect, and would pay a heavy sum annually to any one who would undertake to extirpate the tiny foe. Whole plantations have been swept off by it, and up to the present time no remedy has had more than a temporary and partial success.] Another capricorn beetle of this family is no less destructive to bark in its perfect state than the above are when grubs, as from its habit of eating round a tree, it cuts the course of the returning sap, and destroys it. [The late Mr. Waterton once showed me a stout branch which had fallen on his head while he was standing under a tree, the branch having been cut completely through by the jaws of some large longicorn beetle. The mode in which the insect had severed the branch was exactly like that which is practised by the beaver when it cuts down a tree. [Illustration: Capricorn Beetle (_Cerambyx Lamia amputator_) rounding off the bark of a tree.] The burrows and cocoons of two other species of Cerambyx are shown in the accompanying illustration, and in both cases may be seen the provision which is made for the exit of the beetle after it has attained the perfect condition. The double burrow of the left is that of _Cerambyx carcharias_, and those on the right-hand figure are the habitations of _Cerambyx populneus_. The reader will see how these insects cut up the wood of the branch, and can well understand the infinite mischief which can be done to a coffee plantation by the Clytus.