30 
tember of the following year, while from eggs laid in September the beetles 
emerge in the Spring of the second year after. This gives to the larve of the 
first batch an existence of fifteen months, including one winter, and to those of 
the second a period of nineteen or twenty months, including two winters, during 
which season of the year the grubs must be more or less inactive, probably en- 
tirely so. 
7 Dicerca tenebrosa is a beetle one-half to five-eighths of an inch in length, of 
robust form and having the wing-covers tapering and prolonged at the tips, and 
rough looking from the presence of several rows of raised, black spots, separated 
by spaces densely punctured. 
Buprestis maculiventris is a brassy-brown species, from five-eighths to six- 
eighths of an inch long, common upon both cld and young trees in June and 
July. Iam inclined to think that it feeds also upon spruce, as while in Cape 
Breton last August I noticed a couple of these beetles, in a section wooded almost 
entirely with spruce, pines being rarely met with. It is easily distinguished by 
the yellowish-red spots on each side of the segments of the abdomen beneath, 
-and by smaller spots of the same color upon the shoulders of the thorax and 
upon the face. Its wing-covers are thinner and softer than those of preceding 
species and often have a rumpled appearance, as if bent in two or three places. 
It is inferior in beauty to our other Buprestide. I have found several of the 
beetles emerging from the pine timbers of the Maria Street Bridge, about the 
end of June. 
A species closely allied to it, but slightly larger and marked by feur yel- 
lowish bands across the elytra, is named A. consularis. I havenever found it upon 
pine trees but feel confident that, trom its similarity to the last species and from 
having found specimens near lumber vards and on pine structures, it infests the 
pire. It is somewhat rare in this locality. 
Buprestis striata is a handsome beetle five-eighths to six-eighths of an inch 
Jong. Each wing-cover is marked by four raised lines and, in the greater number 
of specimens, by a bright green stripe down the middle. The thorax is covered 
with coarse punctures, becoming denser and confluent at the sides, and has also a 
slight glimmer of green. The lower surface of the beetle has the appearance of 
brightly polished coprer. This very beautiful and strikingly marked insect is 
occasionally taken feeding on the pine leaves in May and June. A couple were 
taken at the Chats Falls on the occasion of our excursion on 24th June last. 
Melanophila fulvoguttata is a small brassy-black beetle five-sixteenths to 
seven-sixteenths of an inch long, the wing-covers bearing each three yellow dots 
arranged almost in the form of a circle upon the back of the beetle. Thestrface 
is very finely granulated and punctured. Tie beetle is found dung June both 
on spruce and pine. 
The last of the Buprestians which I have to describe is in my opinion the 
gem of them all, so brilliant is it, especially in thesunlight. It is also the smallest, 
the males only averaging fouy-sixteenths of an inch in length and the females 
five-sixteenths. The larve inhabit young saplings aud the small limbs of larger 
trees. The beetles are found on the trees during June and July ; seeming to 
‘delight in the hottest and brightest days of these months, and displaying in such 
weather great activity, whereas on a cool, cloudy day they are much less alert. 
‘When among the leaves they are, from their color, very difficult to see, and if 
shaken off upon a beating net they take wing with such swiftness as very fre- 
quently to ecape capture. The instant they drop upon the net they are off like 
-a flash of emerald light. The color of the female is a uniform vivid greén or 
blue-green, with the exception of the antenne and feet which are black, but the 
male has the thighs and sides of the thorax coppery or bronzed, and is thus easily 
distinguished, as well as by his smaller size. 
’ 
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