INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE OAK. 1 
has been obliged to resort to the apple and peach trees. Dr. Harris speaks of meeting 
with it upon and under the bark of peach trees, and I have captured it upon the 
apple tree. Professor Kirtland, of Cleveland, Ohio, doubtless alludes to this species 
(Downing’s Horticulturist, vol. ii, p. 544), when he says, ‘‘Our apple trees are often 
injured by the larve of the Buprestis, which will girdle out extensive portions of the 
bark and young wood.” This, moreover, is in all probability the beetle of which a 
wood-cut illustration is given in the Ohio Cultivator, vol. x, page 242. Although no 
description of the insect or its larve is given, the figure presents more points of re- 
semblance to C. femorata than to any other common American species. The following 
interesting particulars there stated sufficiently indicate that this beetle will be liable 
to do great damage in our orchards. The editor says, ‘‘The late Dr. Barker, of Mc- 
Connellsville (Morgan County, Ohio), called our attention to the injury done to his 
apple trees, by the beetle represented above, several years ago. It was in the month 
of July, and large numbers of these beetles were seen running up and down the trunks 
and branches of the trees, while beneath the bark extensive ravages of the larve 
were found. We observed, however, that these injuries seemed in nearly or quite all 
cases to have commenced where the bark had previously been killed from some other 
cause, and were almost invariably on the south side of the trees. We have since 
found occasional marks of these insects in other orchards, but never where the trees 
appeared to have been in perfect health previous to their attacks.” This beetle, 
however, is by no means limited to old and decaying trees, as the observations of the 
editor of the Ohio Cultivator leads him to infer. The sections of wood sent me by 
Mr. Barry are from young and thrifty apple trees, and it occurs in oaks also of this 
character, as well as those which are aged and perishing. 
The. beetle.—Like other species of its family, the thick-legged Buprestis is variable 
in size, measuring from four to five-tenths of an inch in length, and about two-thirds 
in width. It is of a black or greenish-black color, polished and shining, with the 
surface rough and uneven. The head, and sometimes the thorax, and the depressed 
portions of the elytra are of a dull coppery color. The head is sunk into the thorax 
to the eyes, is densely punctured, and is clothed in front with fine white hairs, whick 
are directed downwards. Upon the middle of the top of the head is a smooth raised 
black line, with a narrow impressed line through its middle, a mark which serves to 
distinguish this from some of the other species which are closely related to it. The 
thorax is much more broad than long, and is widest forward of the middle. Its sur- 
face is covered with dense, coarsish punctures, which run into each other in a some- 
what transverse direction. It is also somewhat uneven, with slight elevations and 
hollows, but has not two smooth raised lines on its middle and anterior part, which 
are met with in another species very similar to this, the tooth-legged snapping- 
beetle (Chrysobothris dentipes Germar). The elytra or wing-covers present a much 
more rough and unequal surface than any other part of the insect. Three smooth and 
polished raised lines extend lengthwise of each wing-cover, and the intervals between 
them are in places occupied by smaller raised lines, which form a kind of net-work, 
and two impressed transverse spots may also be discerned more or less distinctly, 
dividing each wing-cover into three nearly equal portions. These spots reach from 
the inner one of the three raised lines nearly to the outer margin, crossing the two 
other raised lines, and interrupting them more or less. They are commonly of a 
cupreous tinge, and densely punctured, but are smoother than the other portions of 
the surface. A smaller and more deeply impressed spot may commonly be found in 
the space next to the suture and forward of the anterior spot, of which it is, as it were, 
a continuation. The wing-covers are rounded at their tips, so as to present a slight 
notch at the suture when they are closed, and the outer margin towards the tip has 
several very minute projecting teeth. When the wing-covers are parted the back 
is discovered to be of a brilliant bluish-green color, and thickly punctured, with a 
row of large impressed spots along the middle, one on each segment, and half way 
between these and the outer margin is another row of smaller impressed dots, having 
