ENTOMOLOGY IN OUTLINE — COLEOPTERA. 



101 



and dried meats. Among the worst pests in this family are Anthrenus 

 scrophtdarLr, the carpet-beetles, known in the larval stage as the buffalo- 

 moth; A. varius and A. rnuseorum, the museum pests; and Dermestes 

 lardarhis, the larder-beetles. 



The family Papnidse are generally known as "water-pennies," on 

 account of the flat, crustacean-like larvte, which cling to stones. The 

 adults are non-swimming, but crawl about on submerged objects. 



Tribe Serricornia. 



This tribe is composed of beetles with slender, serrated, saw-toothed 

 antenna?. 



The BupPBstidse is an important Serricorn family, both economically 

 and numerically, its members being commonly known as the metallic 

 wood-borers. These beetles have a compact, elongate body, short, ser- 

 rate antennae; the head is deeply inserted in the 

 prothorax, and they are always metallic and iri- 

 descent in their coloration. Their larvae are flat- 

 headed, legless, tadpole-shaped wood-borers, making 

 broad, shallow galleries and chambers under the 

 bark of trees. 



The apple-tree borer {Ckrysohothris femoraia) is 

 a greenish-black beetle, half an inch long, which 

 lays its eggs on the bark of apple, peach, plum, and several forest trees. 

 The newly hatched larvae bore through the bark to the sapwood, where 

 they burrow around and often girdle the tree. The Sinuate pear-borer 

 is another very serious pest in the Eastern States. 



The Elatepidse resemble the Buprestidse in shape, but their lack of 

 metallic colors, being usually blackish, brownish, or grayish, and the 



FIG. 89. Flat-headed ap- 

 ple-tree borer {Chryso- 

 bothris femorata). 



FIG. 90. Click-beetles (Elatrids) 

 and larva (wireworm). 



FIG 91. FireOy (Photinus pyralis). a, larva; 6, pupa 

 in underground cell; c, adult; d-f, enlarged de- 

 tails of larva. 



backward projecting angles of the prothorax, readily distinguish them 

 from that family. On account of their power of springing up in the 

 air when laid down backwards, they are called click-beetles. The larvae 

 are the "wireworms," and are long, slender, slightly flattened, and 



