FAMILY BUPRESTID^. - 85 



B. Margin tvithout serratures, 



BupRESTis DivAnicATA (Say). Cherry tr ee Buprestis. ( Plate v, fig 4.) 



Convex ; greenisli cupreous above, purplish and metallic beneath, confluently punctured 



above and beneath. Elytra attenuate, divaricate or divergent at their tips : thorax 



indented before the scutel ; scutel small and indented : elytra marked with lines and 



with abbreviated elevations ; tips narrowed and prolonged beyond the abdomen, and 



* truncate and submucronate on the inner side. Length seven-tenths of an inch. 



According to Say^ it resembles the lurida of Fabricius in general appearancff. 



Buprestis lurida ( Fab.). 

 Above dull brassy ; beneath brassy with purplish hues and bright, confluently punctured 

 above and beneath. Mandibles black :' eyes dark brown or black : thorax dilated 

 before its middle, coarsely sculptiu-ed, and impressed with grooves rather than lines. 

 Elytra coarsely sculptured, marked with wider abbreviated lines, and connected by 

 branching ridges ; behind they are slightly attenuate, projecting just beyond the 

 pointed abdomen, and terminated with two submucronate points. 

 This species diflers from the former, in being destitute of lines, having fewer confluent 

 punctures, coarseness of the markings, less attenuated tips of the elytra, and theii* ter- 

 mination in two short spines instead of one. The larva is described by Mr. Harris as 

 destructive to the pignut hickory : it is of a yellowish white ; long, narrow, depressed 

 in form, and abruptly widened at the anterior extremity : head brown, small, and deeply 

 sunk in the forepart of the first segment ; jaws three-toothed, black : no legs, nor sub- 

 stitutes except two small warts on the underside of the second segment of the thorax. 



These grubs exist in the wood and beneath the bark, sometimes in great numbers : the 

 pupa resembles the perfect insect. 



Agrilus ruficollis, a member of the Family Buprestid.^:, was described by Professor 

 Haldeman in the American Qaarterly Journal of Agriculture and Science, Vol. iv, p. 200, 

 fig. 1 , as follows : ' This little insect, so hurtful to the raspberry, is about three lines long ; 

 black, minutely punctured, thorax and front brassy ; front with a vertical impression : 

 a wide shallow impression across the thorax posteriorly, and another at the base of the 

 elytra. In this particular case, the knowledge of the appearance of the insect is not es- 

 sential, as far as the means of preventing its depredations are concerned, although it is 

 always interesting to know whence an injury proceeds. 



' In its larva state, Agrilus ruficollis lives at the expense of the cultivated Rubus (rasp- 

 berry), in the heart of which the pupa may be found in the month of May, the imago 

 appearing in June. The larva bores between the wood and bark, injuring the plant, and 

 causing a wide unsightly excrescence : it next penetrates to the pith, which It traverses 

 for two or three feet, finally excavating a cavity in which it undergoes its transformations.' 



