426 



ARTICULATES I INSECTS. 



Fig. 318. 



Buprestis, B. vir 

 ginica, Drury. 



grinding-plate, and the antennae ten-jointed. Beetles of 

 this genus feed upon the juices of flowers, and pollen. 

 The Genus Osmoderma embraces the Scented Beetles. 

 The Rough Osmoderma, O. scabra, Beauv., is about 

 one inch long, broad, oval, and flattened, purplish black, 

 with a copper lustre, the head hollowed on top, and the 

 wing-cases thickly, deeply, and irregularly punctured. 

 BUPRESTID.E, Leach, OR BUPRESTIAN FAMILY. This 

 Family comprises elongated, flattened, 

 very solid beetles, with the head sunk 

 into the thorax to the eyes, the antennae 

 eleven-jointed, serrate, and legs short. 

 Their colors are brilliant, often metallic. 

 The Buprestians are diurnal, found on 

 trunks of trees, and when disturbed fold 

 their legs and feign death. The larvae 

 are wood-borers, are several years in com- 

 ing to their full growth, and their transformations take 

 place within the trees. Species differing from one an- 

 other bore the peach, plum, oak, pine, and hickory. 

 ELATERID^E, Leach, OR SPRING-BEETLE FAMILY. This 

 Family comprises beetles which have 

 a hard body, usually tapering behind, 

 the head sunk to the eyes in the tho- 

 rax, and the latter as broad at the 

 base as the wing-covers, rounded be- 

 fore, and the hind angles short and 

 prominent. They are at once distin- 

 guished by their power of throwing 

 themselves upward with a jerk after 

 they have been placed upon the back. 

 They perform this feat by means of a 

 spine, the point of which fits into a 

 cavity behind it, situated on the under 

 side of the breast, between the bases of the first pair of 



Fig- 3I9- 



Spring-Bee, 



