PROC. ENT. soc. WASH., VOL. 22, NO. 4, APRIL, 1920 73 



patient seeking and hard work to get them. Some of the follow- 

 ing species are considered the rarest of the American Buprestidae, 

 yet specimens can be obtained almost every year if the seeker is 

 willing to spend some time and hard work in the effort. To tell 

 how, when and where to get specimens of these species is the object 

 of this paper. 



Trachykele Mars. 



Taking the genus as a whole, the species of Trachykele are con- 

 sidered as little known as any American Buprestidae. There are 

 four named species, one southeastern and three western, and one 

 apparently good unnamed one from the west. The beetles of all 

 of the species transform from the pupae in the fall and remain in 

 the pupal cells in the wood until spring before emerging. For 

 this reason collecting from the wood will produce results over a 

 much longer period than collecting by beating or chance collect- 

 ing on the foliage or wood. 



T. lecontei Gory. This southeastern species has been taken in 

 the bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) from Virginia to Louisiana. 

 Blazes or other scars on the trunks of standing trees appear to 

 be the best places to obtain it. Chop away the outer wood any 

 time from early fall until late spring and the beetles should be 

 found in the pupal cells beneath. Dr. A. D. Hopkins cut some 

 specimens from the wood of drift logs on the ocean beach at Vir- 

 ginia Beach, Va. 



The three named western species are found within a distance 

 of five miles in some localities in the Sierras of California. One 

 such locality is Strawberry on the Lincoln Highway in El Dorado 

 County. 



T. blondeli Mars. This species, the type of the genus, has 

 been found in a number of localities and hosts. At Strawberry 

 it occurs in the western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) at an 

 elevation of from 5700 to 8000 ft. Many of the larvae after min- 

 ing up and down in the wood of the trunks of small trees while 

 feeding go into the branches to pupate. In fact this habit was 

 so common that the writer had the best success collecting by trim- 

 ming off all of the branches of about 1 /z to 1 inch in diameter 

 from the lower part of the trees. If a large mine was found in 

 the center of a branch the branch was followed up until the beetle 

 was found, which usually was within from ! /2 an inch to 1 foot. 



The typical form of blondeli and several variations have been 

 found in the San Francisco Bay region in the wood of the Mon- 

 terey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) and the Sargent cypress 

 (C. sargentii). In the Sargent cypress groves on Cypress Ridge 

 near San Geronimo, Marin County, golden or coppery margined 



