356 



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

 CONTRIBUTIOXS TO ENTOMOLOGY. NO. VII. 



Family Buprestidce. 



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

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

 witli brilliant or metallic hues. The larvas 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 Bujjrestes do not leave the trees till they have com- 

 pleted their metamorphoses, and assumed the perfect state. The larvaj 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 antenna 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 flattoncd 

 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 larvaj 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 tlie mandibles, 

 upon the sides of its burrow. 



The larvaj of the Buprestes 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 the fa'ce. 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 swiit, and attended with a whizzing noise. 



I am not ac(|iiainted with the larva? of Trachijs, a genus separated from 

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

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

 (Teres,) botli being found upon the leaves of ti*ees. 



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

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



