198 PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



Tlw Green Beech Saw-horn Beetle, Buprestis (Agrilus) viridis 

 (vide Plate I. fig. 7). This beetle is about 0'24 inches in length, 

 and for the most part of a lustrous blue or green colour. It 

 swarms in June and July, when the female deposits her ova on 

 the bark of young Beech or Oak, on the cambial layer of which 

 the larva feed, thereby causing a sickly condition of growth, or 

 even the death of the sapling if badly attacked. Sturdy Beech 

 transplants are specially liable to be attacked over considerable 

 areas in this manner, but in these cases the observation has 

 always been made that the plants in the first instance attacked 

 have usually been in a sickly condition, in consequence of not 

 having had time to establish themselves thoroughly. 



Its generation is biennial. The further propagation and 

 increase in the number of this insect can be hindered by pulling 

 up and burning the plants that are attacked ; but the damage done 

 is not usually great. 



The Golden-furrowed Oak Saw-horn Beetle, Buprestis (Chryso- 

 bothris) affinis. This is a copper-brown or dark grey beetle, with 

 metallic lustre, and with two golden furrows on each of the 

 elytra. The larvae live chiefly in sturdy Oak transplants, in 

 which they bore irregular, sinuous, shallow galleries between the 

 cambium and the sap wood, and often injure or even kill off 

 the saplings in large numbers. Here again the cutting back of 

 the plants that show sickly growth, in consequence of being 

 attacked, is the only way in which the increase of the insects can 

 be prevented, or the damage done in any way repaired. 



The thin Oak Saw-horn Beetle, Buprestis (Agrilus) tenuis. This 

 beetle is '28 to '3 2 inches long, and of a dull green colour passing 

 into olive or bronze. In its life-history, and as regards the 

 damage it does, to Oak and Beech principally, it closely resembles 

 Agrilus viridis. Another species, Agrilus letuleti, has also been 

 found committing damage on Birch here and there. 



97. Leaf -beetles (Chrysowielidfe). 



These beetles are of short, squat, compressed, strongly-arched 

 structure, and are usually of small size, with short feelers and 

 powerful legs partly adapted for springing ; they are frequently 

 variegated in colour, and have often a metallic lustre. 



Though principally living on broad-leaved kinds of plants, th< 



