Country diaryInsects23 September 1921: Joiners and others say it uses its long ‘horns’ as callipers to size up the beam it is walking on
A small beetle with extraordinarily long antennae, or “horns,” as some call them, flew in through an open window, and in due course found its way to me. It was one of the wood-boring group, and its larva does a fair amount of damage by eating tunnels in pine and other coniferous wood. In England it is not very common, but it is far from rare in Scottish fir woods, though it may originally have been introduced from abroad. A favourite spot for its appearance is a coalmine, for it travels in pitprops from Scandinavia, and then appears to interest or alarm the colliers. The timberman is the name it goes by, for joiners and others say that it uses its horns as callipers to measure the beam it is walking on. In the male the antennae are often four times the length of the beetle’s body, and as they are useful sense organs it takes great care of them. When rival males meet they fight furiously, and each tries to cripple its antagonist by shortening these horns; males with perfect antennae are not common.
Mr HR Wood, Beech House, Broom Lane, Higher Broughton, writes that he has a fine yucca in flower, and would be pleased to show it to any reader of the “Diary” on presentation of card.
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