THE SPRING-BEETLES. 51 



times copper-colored ; the wing-covers are thickly punctured ; 

 and on each there are three small tawny yellow spots, with 

 sometimes an additional one by the side of the first spot ; 

 the tips are rounded, and the fore legs are not toothed. It 

 varies very much in size, measuring ft"om about three to 

 four tenths of an inch in length. I have taken this insect 

 ■from the trunks of the white pine in the month of June, and 

 have seen others that were found in the Oregon Territory. 



Professor Hentz has described a small and broad beetle 

 having the form of the above, under the name of Bnprestis 

 (^Chrysohothis) Harrisii. (Plate II, Fig. 2.) It is entii'ely of 

 a brilliant blue-green color, except the sides of the thorax, and 

 the thighs, which in the male are copper-colored. It meas- 

 ures a little more than three tenths of an inch in length. 

 The larvse of this species inhabit the small limbs of the white 

 pine, and young sapling trees of the same kind, upon which 

 I have repeatedly captured the beetles about the middle of 

 June. 



These seven species form but a very small part of the Bu- 

 prestians inhabiting INIassachusetts and the other New Eng- 

 land States. My knowledge of the habits of the others is not 

 sufficiently perfect to render it worth while to insert descrip- 

 tions of them here. The concealed situation of the grubs of 

 these beetles, in the trunks and limbs of trees, renders it 

 very difficult to discover and dislodge them. When trees 

 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.e,) 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 



