xv, 3 Banks: Two Philippine Buprestids 293 



to 25 millimeters more, and spread out as a blotch covering 

 nearly the entire space between midrib and margin (Plate I, 

 fig. 2). 



The tendency of the larva in mining is to proceed from the 

 base to the apex of the leaf, but this is not the invariable course 

 (Plate I, fig. 1). After it has made the main blotch mine, it 

 invariably makes a second, very much smaller, chamber at a 

 distance of from 10 to 15 millimeters, connected with the first 

 by a gallery of an almost uniform width of 3 millimeters in 

 nearly every instance. A third chamber may be made (Plate 

 I, fig. 7), and even as many as four subsidiary chambers may 

 be mined out by a single larva (Plate I, fig. 1) before it decides 

 to pupate. It closes the entrance to this chamber by a lunate 

 mass of compacted excrement (Plate I, figs. 2 and 3). Occa- 

 sionally larvae mining in opposite directions will cross each 

 other's connecting galleries and continue in their determined 

 direction. 



The thin epidermis of the leaf soon dries and becomes torn, 

 leaving very large, jagged, brown-bordered scars which detract 

 from the beauty of this very ornamental plant. 



FEEDING HABITS OF THE ADULT 



The adults of Endelus bakeri feed on the upper sides of the 

 leaves in a very peculiar manner. They first eat out an oval 

 space, devouring all of the upper epidermis and the paren- 

 chyma, leaving the lower epidermis entire. When this oval 

 space is about the size of the body of the insect, instead of 

 continuing to feed from outside the space, it deliberately set- 

 tles down in the center of the denuded spot and proceeds with 

 its meal from the bare white space. It is difficult to see why 

 it should feed in this very strange manner, because its dark 

 body is much more conspicuous against the white spot than 

 against the darker green of the leaf. 



It will be seen by reference to Plate III, fig. 2, that the white 

 spots are located near the apex of the leaf; but this is not 

 always the case, although the majority of them are found on 

 the apical half of it. When a beetle is feeding it is not easily 

 frightened from its repast and the hottest sunshine does not 

 seem to annoy the insect. 



PARASITES 



The larva of Endelus bakeri is parasitized by at least one 

 species of chalcis fly, the female puncturing the epidermis of 

 the leaf and laying her eggs through the dorsal skin of the 



