106 



APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY 



green or other colors. The larvae which bore in trees, are white except 

 for a small, yellowish head, and have a large, flattened prothorax and no 

 legs. Some of these insects attack pines; others, different forest trees, 

 burrowing at first just under the bark in the sap-wood and later in the 

 heart-wood. The average life history requires about a year for its com- 

 pletion, but if the tree be vigorous the larva is liable either to die or be 

 delayed in its development. The adults are fond of the sun and fly 

 freely in the daytime. They are often found on flowers. Several hun- 

 dred species are known in this country, all of them injurious, the damage 

 they do being largely dependent upon the importance of the tree or 

 plant they attack. 



The Flat-headed Apple-tree Borer (Chrysobothris femorata Fab.). 

 This is probably the most injurious of the Buprestids. It attacks more 

 than 30 kinds of trees and shrubs, generally selecting individuals which 

 are not in a healthy condition or are otherwise favorable for their larvae. 



FIG. 95. Adult Flat-headed Apple-tree Borer (Chrysobothris femorata Fab.), enlarged 

 3>4 times. (From U. S. D. A. Farm. Bull. 1065.) 



The beetle (Fig. 95) is about half an inch long, rather broad, dark brown, 

 faintly marked with bands and indefinite spots of gray, and having a 

 brassy metallic reflection at certain angles. The underside is bronze, 

 and under the wings the abdomen is a metallic greenish-blue. It occurs 

 almost everywhere in the United States and in Southern Canada, and 

 is a serious enemy of fruit trees. 



The beetles appear soon after apple-blossom time and live for several 

 weeks. They frequent the sunny side of the trunks and limbs of trees. 

 Here the eggs are laid in fine cracks or under small scales of the bark. 

 They hatch in from 2 to 3 weeks and the tiny larva (Fig. 96) bores into 

 the inner bark, feeding on this and on the sap-wood and grows rapidly 



