Beetles 267 



truncate in front, as if cut sharply off, and the body rather cylindrical than 

 flattened, as with most other Buprestids. A. ruficollis, the red-necked black- 

 berry-borer, T 3 - inch long, with dark bronze head, coppery bronze prothorax, 

 and black wing-covers, has a larva that bores into the canes of blackberries and 

 raspberries, burrowing spirally about in the sapwood until full-grown, when 

 it bores to the pith and there pupates. The eggs are laid in June and July 

 on the young canes. Infested canes often show gall-like swellings, and 

 should be cut off and burned. 



Our largest Buprestids belong to the genus Chalcophora. C. virginiensis 

 is an inch long, dark coppery or blackish with elevated lines and depressed 

 spots on the elytra. The larvae bore into pines. C. liberta (PL II, Fig. 3) is 

 a beautiful pink bronze with darker raised lines. Dicerca divaricata, f inch 

 long, is copper-colored, with the black-dotted elytra tapering behind and 

 separated at the tips. Buprestis (PI. II, Fig. 8) is a genus of rather large 

 brassy-green or brassy-black species often spotted with yellow on the elytra 

 and beneath. 



Resembling the Buprestids much in general shape and appearance, the 

 click-beetles, Elateridae, are readily distinguished from them by their lack 

 of metallic colors, the backward-projecting, sharp-pointed hinder angles 

 of the prothorax, and their curious capacity, whence 

 their name, of springing into the air with a sharp click 

 when laid back downward. When a click-beetle 

 snapping-bugs and skipjacks are other common names 

 for them is disturbed it falls to the ground, lying 

 there for a little while as if dead. Then if it has 

 alighted, as it usually does, on its back, it suddenly 

 gives a spasmodic jerk which throws it several inches 

 high and brings it down right side up. This springing 

 is accomplished by means of an apparatus consisting 



of a small cavity on the under side of the mesothorax FIG. 3 6 7- Ventral 

 . . , . , ,, . r , . . aspect of a large 



into which the point or a curved projecting process click-beetle show- 



from the prosternum fits (Fig. 367). When the beetle is ing snapping appa- 

 laid on its back it bends in such a way as to bring the H^\' 

 tip of the curved horn to the edge of the cavity, when, 

 by a sudden release of muscular tension this tip slips and the insect is 

 thrown into the air. The Elateridae are a large family, about 350 species 

 being known in this country. They are mostly of small or medium size, 

 although some are an inch or more long; a very few reach a length of 

 nearly two inches. As a rule they are uniform brownish; some blackish 

 or grayish and others banded and marked with brighter colors. In the 

 South occur certain luminous click-beetles. In Cuba ladies sometimes use 

 these phosporescent species, which are large and emit a strong greenish 



