356 



[New England Farmer, Vol. VIII, No. i, pp. 2, 3, July 24, 1829.] 

 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ENTOMOLOGY. NO. VII. 



Family BuprestidoE. 



The species of the principal genus, which gives name to this family, are 

 quite numerous, and many of them, in their perfect state, are ornamented 

 with brilliant or metallic hues. The larva? are wood-eaters or borers, and 

 are to be classed among the noxious insects. Our forests and orchards are 

 more or less subject to their attacks, especially after the trees have passed 

 their prime. The Buprestes do not leave the trees till they have com- 

 pleted their metamorphoses, and assumed the perfect state. The larvas that 

 are known to me have a close resemblance to each other ; a general idea of 

 them can be formed from a description of that which attacks the pig nut 

 tree. It is of a yellowish white color, elongated and depressed in form, and 

 abruptly dilated near the anterior extremity. The head is brownish, small, 

 and merged in the next segment; the jaws (mandibles^ tridentate at the 

 points, and of a black color ; the antennas very short, tuberculiform. The 

 segment which receives the head (collar) is very short and transverse ; next 

 to it is a large, oval segment, broader than long, depressed or flattened 

 above and beneath ; it forms the thoracic portion of the body. Behind this 

 the segments are very much narrowed, and, from transverse, become grad- 

 ually quadrate, but are still flattened, to the last, which is terminated by a 

 rounded tubercle. There are no legs, nor any apparatus which can serve 

 as such, except two small tubercles on the under side of the second segment 

 from the thorax. The motion of the larvas appears to be effected by the 

 alternate contractions and elongations of the segments, aided perhaps by the 

 tubercular extremity of the body, and by seizing hold, with the mandibles, 

 upon the sides of its bui-row. 



The larv.a? of the Bnprestes are found under the bark and in the solid 

 wood of trees, and sometimes in great numbers. A transverse section of 

 one of their burrows is oval, as is also the hole through which the perfect 

 insect makes its escape from Ihe tree. On the trunks and limbs of trees 

 we find Buprestes in their perfect state. They walk slowly, and, at the 

 approach of danger, draw their feet close, and fall from their situation. 

 Their flight is swift, and attended with a whizzing noise. 



I am not acquainted with the larvae of TracJiys, a genus separated from 

 Buprestis, and distinguished by its short dilated, or triangular body. The 

 habit of the perfect insect is the same as riiat of the cylindrical Buprestes, 

 (Teres,) both being found upon the leaves of trees. 



Two species of Tracliys are common here upon the leaves of the oak, in 

 June and July. The largest, T. tessellata, F. is twenty-two hundredths of an 



