COLEOPTERA. 45 



are found to be very much infested by them, and are going to 

 decay in consequence of the ravages of these borers, it will be 

 better to cut them down, and burn them immediately, rather 

 than to suffer them to stand until the borers have completed 

 their transformations and made their escape. 



Closely related to the Buprestians are the Elaters, or spring- 

 beetles (Elaterid^), which are well known by the faculty 

 they have of throwing themselves upwards with a jerk, when 

 laid on their backs. On the under side of the breast, between 

 the bases of the first pair of legs, there is a short blunt spine, 

 the point of which is usually concealed in a corresponding 

 cavity behind it. When the insect, by any accident, falls upon 

 its back, its legs are so short, and its back is so convex, that it 

 is unable to turn itself over. It then folds its legs close to its 

 body, bends back the head and thorax, and thus unsheaths its 

 breast-spine; then by suddenly straightening its body, the 

 point of the spine is made to strike with force upon the edge 

 of the sheath, which gives it the power of a spring, and reacts 

 on the body of the insect, so as to throw it perpendicularly 

 into the air. When it again falls, if it does not come down 

 upon its feet, it repeats its exertions until its object is effected. 

 In these beetles the body is of a hard consistence, and is usually 

 rather narrow and tapering behind. The head is sunk to the 

 eyes in the fore part of the thorax ; the antennae are of moderate 

 length, and more or less notched on the inside like a saw. The 

 thorax is as broad at the base as the wing-covers ; it is usually 

 rounded before, and the hinder angles are sharp and prominent. 

 The scutel is of moderate size. The legs are rather short and 

 slender, and the feet are five-jointed. 



The larvEB or grubs of the Elaters live upon wood and roots, 

 and are often very injurious to vegetation. Some are confined 

 to old or decaying trees, others devour the roots of herbaceous 

 plants. In England they are called wire-worms, from their 

 slenderness and uncommon hardness. They are not to be 

 confounded with the American wire-worm, a species of lulus, 

 which is not a true insect, but belongs to the class Myriapoda, 

 a name derived from the great number of feet with which 

 most of the animals included in it are furnished; whereas the 



