CERAMBYCID2E, (Neo-Lat.
none. pl., from Gk. Kepci4v5, kerambyx, horned beetle). A prominent family of cryptopentam erous beetles, commonly known as longhorns, and including about 13,000 described species, of which 600 belong in the United States. A few find nourishment in herbaceous plants, but in most the soft. white grubs, with powerful tumuli Ides, and sometimes legless, live concealed in burrows in feeding upon it, and there pass inn the pupal stage also. The life of these bee tles may be very long. They been found still inhabiting the wood of furniture .everal years in use, and, aecording to Watson, n:ay live forty-live years: hut it is not certain this prolongation of life takes place in the pupal or larval stage— probably the latter, as larva. entombed in dried wood are so poorly nourished that they must reach maturity slowly. Several kinds of these beetles produce sound by stridulation, and some even possess two sets of stridulating organs. Several species greatly Te -einble Hymenoptera in appearance and behavior.
The family is subdivided into three subfamilies • the Prionime, Cerambycina.. and Lamiime. The Prionina• are the largest of the longhorns and have a thin, toothed margin on the thorax: the grub- infest the roots of the grape. apple, pear. poplar, pine, and other trees. of the typical Ccrambyeinie, 400 species oven'. in the United States, and adults may he found frequently on the goldenrod, feeding on the pollen. The locust borer I cp/ienc rob i and the oak-pruner Eta/dim/ion rinosunt), elsewhere described, are examples. Of the Lamiime, one form. the 'saw yer? does much harm to pine•trees: anther de structive reins is Saperda, injurious to apples, raspberries. etc. The various bright-red beetles (in milkweed also belong to this subfamily. For a synopsis of the classification and descriptive tables of genera. etc.. consult Leng, Bu//clan Brooklyn En on/ ologica Soci, I1/. Vol. V 11 I. It.0; I). continued in 1.:nt(finologica merica tot. Vol,. (Brooklyn.