Beetles 267 



truncate in front, as if cut sharpi)' ofl, and the body rather cyHndrical than 

 flattened, as with most other Buprestids. .4. rujicollis, the red-necked black- 

 berry-borer, j\ 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 swelhngs, 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 (PI. 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, Elaterid;e, 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 \vhile 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 niesothorax ^'o- 367- — Ventral 



, . , . . ^ r I . ,. aspect of a large 



mto which the pomt ot a curved projectmg 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 size") ^ ""^^ 



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 Elateridie 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 



