172 INSECTS AFFECTING THE OKANGE. 



tremities. The short passage connecting the pnpa cell with the gallery 

 is carefully filled with wood dust, firmly packed in place, so that even 

 when the bark is removed and the gallery exposed to view, the moutli 

 of the cell remains concealed, and is only disclosed upon the exit of the 

 beetle. The cell is then found to be broad and shallow, oval in outline, 

 and lined with a silken layer that is almost invisible by reason of its 

 delicacy. 



The Beetle. — In spring or early summer there issues a very handsome 

 little beetle, broadly oval in form, and about 8'"^" {-^^-^ inch) in length. 

 The colors of the body are metallic bronze, greenish below and purple 

 above. Upon the wing-cases are ten large spots of brilliant emerald 

 green. 



The Larva. — The form of the larva is characteristic of the family. It 

 has the second joint greatly enlarged, forming a broad, flattened disk, 

 into which the first joint and the small head are sunken, only the black 

 tips of the jaws appearing beyond the cleft in the anterior border. The 

 succeeding joints form a tail-like body, which is less than half as wide 

 as the enlarged joint. In hfe the body is usually curved strongly to one 

 side or the other, giving it still more the appearance of an appendage. 

 The large joint is covered upon both of its flattened faces, with minute, 

 horny denticulations, which serve to hold the body firmly against the 

 smooth walls of the burrow while the jaws are forced into the wood. 



The body of the lava is naked, or with scattered and nearly invisible 

 hairs, soft, white, and without legs. It moves but slowly in its gallery, 

 and only by means of the contraction and expansion of the enlarged 

 flattened joint. 



The pupa presents no especial peculiarities, and merely outlines the 

 form and members of the perfect beetle. 



Habits and Lifehistory. — The eggs are laid upon the bark of dead 

 orange branches, and probably also on Hickory and other close-textured 

 woods. The branches attacked are invarinbly dead and quite dry, but 

 still retaining their bark. The larva never penetrates the living parts 

 of the tA-ee, and will peiish of hunger if the supply of dead wood and 

 bark is not suflicient for its sui)port. The larvjB of different ages are 

 found during the latter part of summer. Some of them change to pupic 

 in the fall, while others, after excavating their pupa cells, occupy them 

 during the winter as larviic, and undergo their transformations in the 

 spring. Of those which pupate in the fall, some become perfect inspects 

 before cold weather, and beetles will be found in the cells as early as 

 January ; they do not, however, leave their retreats until summer 

 weather has begun. The beetles continues to appear as late as May 

 and June. 



As a scavenger, assisting in the return to earth antl air of the dead 

 and useless material that has been assimilated by the plant, this can only 

 be considered a useful insect, and certainly one that is incapable of do- 

 ing any injury to the orange tree, either by causing disease or by direct 

 loss of wood or bark. 



