€4 



FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



The Buprestids in the perfect state love the daylight aud sunshine. Before storms, 

 when the air is calm aud heavy aud the sun is hot, they have an extraordinary activity; 

 and when the weather gradually becomes cloudy aud the wind rises they disappear 

 from our sight. We know but little as to the nature of their food. Chalcophora ma- 

 riana devours the youug shoots of pines, Anthaxia morio and chevrierii eat, the first 

 the petals of buttercups, the second those of Cihsus alyssoides. Other Anthaxise 

 also, as well as Trachys, frequent different iiowers. Aphanisticus emarginatus occurs 

 on rushes (joncs), and I have sometimes taken Acmceodera tceniata on the flowers of 

 carrots. All these facts lead me to think that the Buprestids are phytophagous; 

 but it appears that certain species are, accidentally at least, carnivorous. This ap- 

 pears from a communication made by M. L6on Fairmaire to the Soci6t6 Entom- 

 ologique, in its session of January 10, 1849, relative to the subject of Chrysobothris 

 solim. 



Regarding our oak-borer (C. dentipes), Harris states that it completes 

 its transformations aud comes out of the trees between the end of May 

 and the first of July. This applies to Maine aud Massachusetts. In 

 New York, according to Dr. Fitch, the beetles are "often found bask- 

 ing in the sunshine on the bark of the trees in June and July." 



The beetle. — This insect is so named from the little tooth on the under side of the 

 thick forelegs. It is oblong, oval, and flattened, of a bronzed brownish or purplish- 

 black color above, copper- colored beneath, and rough-like shagreen, with numerous 

 punctures; the thorax is not so wide as the hinder part of the body; its hinder mar- 

 gin is hollowed on both sides to receive the rounded base of each wing-cover, and 

 there are two smooth elevated lines on the middle ; on each wing-cover there are 

 three irregular, smooth, elevated lines, which are divided and interrupted by large, 

 thickly punctured, impressed spots, two of which are oblique: the tips are rounded. 

 Length from ^to 1*^0 of an inch. (Harris.) 



7. The flat-headed borer. 



Chrysohothr'ts femorata Fabricius. 



Order Coleoptera; Family Buprestids. 



Boring underthe barkandiu the sap-wood of the white oak, aud in the Gulf States, 

 the pin oak ; a pale-yellow flat-headed grub, closely resembling the preceding species. 



This pernicious borer of the apple tree, as stated both by Harris and 

 Fitch, originally infested the white oak, but since the settlement of the 



country has abounded in the apple and 

 sometimes in the peach, but may still be 

 found to injure the white oak. Riley has 

 also found it in the soft maple and weep- 

 ing willow. Riley has reared this beetle 

 from the oak, apple, mountain ash, box 

 elder, peach, and pear, and has found tbe 

 larva in tbe mountain ash, linden, beech, 

 cherrj^, and peach (7th Rt. Ins. Mo., 72). 

 Fig. 18 will fairly represent the "mine" 

 or gallery made under the bark of a stump 

 Fig. i6.-Chrysobothri8 femorata: of the white oak, as it occurrcd at Prov- 

 t^!'i'{;>T^l^!!^'^ idence, R. I. Tbe wonn soon after hatch- 

 KHorn.''''* "" **' '"^''■~ iug made the mine as is seen on the right of 



