78 Journal New York Entomological Society. tVoi. xxvi. 



The larvK of the Bupresticte are miners in the tissue of dead, 

 dying and Hving plants, and on account of the enlarged and flattened 

 prothoracic segment which is common to one type, they have re- 

 ceived the names, " flat-headed borers " and " hammer heads." Some 

 live in decaying wood, while others infest orchard and other trees 

 and are of economic importance. Their work in general consists of 

 a "' flattened oval, gradually enlarging, more or less tortuously wind- 

 ing mine or wormhole. which when completed widens out into an 

 elongate oval pupal cell. This cell connects with the outer surface 

 by a short, oval exit hole. The mine has its surface marked by fine, 

 transverse, crescentic lines and is usually tightly packed with sawdust- 

 like borings and pellets of woody excrement. The injury may be 

 entirely in the bark, entirely in the wood, or as is usually the case, in 

 both bark and wood" (Burke). These mines may completely en- 

 circle the trunk and when this occurs, the circulation of sap is stopped 

 and the tree dies. According to Burke, who has added much to our 

 knowledge of the life history and habits of these insects, the life 

 history in general is as follows. 



Eggs are deposited singly during the spring or summer, in crevices 

 in the bark or under the bark at the edge of a wound and the larva 

 mines the inner bark or wood until it reaches maturity, which may 

 be the following or second fall. It then forms a cell in the bark or 

 wood in which it pupates and transforms to the adult. The winter is 

 passed in the larval, pupal or adult stage, and in nearly all cases the 

 adult emerges the following spring or summer. The beetles usually 

 feed on the foliage of some plant, sometimes on that of the host, 

 but often on that of another. After mating and egglaying, death soon 

 takes place. The beetles are active, fly readily and like to bask in the 

 sunshine. According to Fletcher, a specimen of B. aurulenta was 

 found in the act of emerging from its burrow in the wood of a desk 

 which had stood in the Office of Works at Guildhall for twenty-two 

 years. 



There are two general types of buprestid larvae, one. the hark and 

 wood borers, "flat-headed borers'" with a long, slender, sub-cylin- 

 drical body and the other, leaf miners, with the body flattened, rather 

 oval, deeply notched and gradually tapering to the last segment. Ac- 

 cording to Burke, both types are distinguished by the following char- 

 acters. Body composed of thirteen flattened segments. Head small 



