﻿THE "skipjacks AND THEIR ALLIES. 129 



eye on each side ; there are six widely separated two- 

 jointed legs; and the body rapidly contracts behind, 

 each of its segments being moreover separated from its 

 neighbours by deep incisions, and furnished with an 

 upper and lower horny shield, and two lateral fringed 

 tubercles, * 



They feed either in solid wood (especially of dead or 

 decaying trees), or under or in the bark. Agrilus bigut- 

 tatus, our largest indigenous species (Plate VIII, Fig. 5), 

 may be taken in all its stages at Darenth Wood at the 

 end of June : its larvae work sinuous galleries in the 

 damp bark of large oak stumps in open cuttings, that 

 have been left for about two years in the ground, and 

 turn to pupse in cells between the outer and inner layers ; 

 the perfect insect remaining quiescent therein for some 

 time. This species, in common with all the Buprestidce, 

 flies during the hot sunshine ; and, on the least alarm, 

 packs its limbs tight to its body, simulates death, and 

 rolls to the ground. The very rare and lovely emerald 

 Anthaxia has a similar provoking habit of vanishing 

 from its resting-place in the flowers of Hieracium in the 

 New Forest, when approached by the collector. 



The species of Trachys found on sallows, in moss, etc., 

 are very small, triangular, thick, and wiry-legged. 



The EucNEMiD^ possess many of the characters of 

 the Buprestida, but have the eyes small and round ; 

 the antennse inserted on the forehead, at the inner mar- 

 gin of the eyes, and in the British species (with two 

 exceptions) strongly flabellated ; the apical joint of the 

 palpi clubbed ; the labrum obsolete ; the outer lobe of 

 the maxillae sometimes (in certain foreign genera) ab- 

 sent ; the spurs of the tibise very small, or wanting ; the 

 hinder angles of the thorax produced ; and the projection 



