INSECTS INJURING OAK-LEAVES. 



205 



284. Brachys (erosa Melsheimer. 

 Order Coleoptera ; family Buprestid.e. 



I have found this small Buprestid upon the leaves of the 

 oak early in summer in Maine, and late in May near Provi- 

 dence, R. I. It most probably mines the leaves of the 

 oak, but its habits are not yet known. The late Mr. V. T. 

 Chambers once wrote me that he had often found in Ken- 

 tucky " a Brachys larva (scarcely, if at all distinguish- 

 able from that of B. ceruginosa) mining the leaves of oaks, 

 but have never bred the beetle." 



We introduce a cut of B. ccruginosa, much enlarged, to 

 illustrate a larva of this genus. 



285. Brachys ovata Web. 



Fig. 66. Larva 

 of Brachys 

 ceruginosa. — 

 Packard. 



On laurel oak; the imago issues the latter part of April and early 

 May. (Riley's unpublished notes.) Mr. C. P. Gillette reports rearing 

 the beetle from a larva mining a leaf of either the red or black oak. 

 (Can. Ent. XIX, 139, 1887.) 



286. Chlamys pJicata Fabr. 



We have given some account of this pretty beetle in our " Guide to 

 the Study of Insects," p. 510. It was reared by Mr. S. H. Scudder from 

 the sweet fern. 



"August 24, 1876, found on Quercus bicolor curious little coleopterous 

 case-bearers. The abdomen of the larvse, as 

 far as it can be seen, is yellow with a trans- 

 verse black patch on first segment just be- 

 hind the head. Head black ; legs long ; yel- 

 low, with last joint black ; the case is dark- 

 brown, nearly black, of the shape of the 

 shell of some kind of snail or like a little 

 horn." (Riley's unpublished notes.) 



Fig. G7.— Chlamys plicata: a, larva 

 taken from its case. — From 

 Packard ; Emerton del. 



287. Selandria quercus- alha Norton. 



A species of slug-worm like that of the pear {S. cerasi) has been 

 observed by Mr. Edward Norton living abundantly on the white oak, 

 and also in abundance on the English oak {Q. rohur), at Farmington, 

 Conn. 



"They feed in companies when young, sometimes twelve on a leaf, 

 head outward, devouring the epidermis of the under side of the leaf, 

 and not eating holes through. The eggs are not laid in the ribs of the 

 leaf, but in the smooth surface between the upper and lower skin near 

 the tip of the leaf, where whitish, irregular blotches are soon formed, 

 visible only beneath, from the center of which the larva comes forth. I 



