94 NATURE STUDY. 



really on the part known as the prothorax. This protho- 

 rax, in any insect, can always be distinguished from the 

 head by the fact that the first pair of legs are attached to 

 it, and of course there could be no legs on the head. The 

 big spots, looking like staring eyes, probably serve to 

 frighten the Eyed Elater's enemies away. It even looks 

 alarming to children and grown folks, until one learns 

 what a gentle, harmless creature it is, with a trick of play- 

 ing that it is dead, and then snapping itself into the air, 

 alighting on its feet and running away. 



When the Click-beetles, large and small, have been pin- 

 ned in a row or b6x by themselves, and labelled with the 

 family nam.e, Elateridse, there will probably be found some 

 other beetles of about the same shape, but with metallic 

 colors, looking as if they were made of bronze. They are 

 hard, too, as if made of metal and their wing-covers are 

 rough and furrowed. They have a spine or "process" 

 extending backward from between the front legs, as the 

 Click-beetles ; but they cannot spring up like them when 

 left upon their backs. These hard, metal-colored beetles 

 are the Metallic Wood-borers. The larvae, or young, of 

 these beetles are the " fiat-headed" worms, of which one 

 kind, or species, is found in apple-trees, another in pine, 

 another in peach, cherry, beech, maple, and so on. These 

 Metallic Wood-borers belong to the family Buprestidae, 

 and are often spoken of as Buprestids. 



Another family of beetles whose larvae live in the wood 

 or pith of trees is composed of the lyong-horns. Perhaps 

 the children have been so fortunate as to have in their col- 

 lection a beautiful brown and gray beetle, with antennae, 

 or " feelers," twice as long as the body, which is itself an 

 inch and a quarter in length. This is the Sawyer-beetle, 

 and its larva lives in the solid wood of pine and fir. An- 

 other beetle of the same family is the Cloaked Knotty-horn, 

 often found in large numbers on elder in June and July. 



