CATALOGUE OF INSECTS. 253 



Family BUPRESTIDJE. 



These are stout beetles also resembling the click beetles in general form but 

 broader and the prothorax not free, so they have no powers of leaping. They 

 are metallic or otherwise brightly colored, the elytra smooth, striate or irregu- 

 larly sculptured. The head is retracted to the eyes, and the antennae are short, 

 rather slender and serrated or saw-toothed. 



The larvae are wood borers, living under bark and making broad, rather 

 shallow furrows, galleries and chambers. They are somewhat flattened in 

 form, long, the segments well defined, head small, the anterior thoracic seg- 

 ments very much broadened so as to give the creature a hammer-like form, 

 therefore they have been called " hammer-heads," or simply flat-headed borers. 

 A number of these are of economic importance because they infest orchard 

 trees. The larger species favor plants that are low in vitality from injury or 

 other causes, hence trees may be protected by keeping them in healthy, growing 

 condition. Others however, belonging to the genus Agrilus, of which the beetles 

 are long, slender and cylindrical, attack plants in full vigor. One of these 

 causes a gall on blackberry canes. These galls should be cut out in winter and 

 burnt with the contained grub. Or the shoots made up to the first of July 

 should be cut off at the surface because in them larvae of the new brood are 

 contained, depending for next year's crop on the shoots made later in the 

 season. 



The sinuate pear borer makes wavy galleries in pear trees and sometimes 

 kills them. Trees may be protected by covering with paper May 20 to July 1st 

 to prevent the exit of the insect from the tree or laying eggs on the trunk, or a 

 heavy coat of whitewash may be maintained for the same period, adding an 

 ounce of paris green to each pail of wash. 



OHALCOPHORA Sol. 



C. virginiensis Dru. G. d. (W), Westville (Li), Ft. Lee (Bt), Newark 

 (Soc), Lahaway, in June : it breeds in pines. 



C. liberta Germ. Atlantic Co. (W), Westville, Egg Harbor (Li), Newark, 



Orange Mts. (Bf), Lahaway, V, 15, 28 : also breeds in pine. 

 O. campestris Say. West Hoboken, on tulip trees (Ch) : breeds also in syca- 

 more, beech, maple, etc. 



DICERCA Esch. 



D. prolongata Lee. Newark. V, 29, g. d., but rare (Bf). So far as known, 



almost all the species of this genus breed in deciduous trees. 

 D. clivaricata Say. Throughout the State ; breeds in apple, beech, maple 

 and a great variety of other deciduous trees ; but has not thus far proved 

 injurious in New Jersey. 



D. pugionata Germ. Gloucester Co. (W, Li), Hudson Co. (LI). Ft. Lee, 

 VII (Sf). Newark district, g. d. (Bf). Occurs on black alder (W), and 

 breeds also in Spircea opuli/olia (Hn). 



D. obscura Fabr. Throughout the State, VI and VII ; the larva in hickory, 

 var. lurida Fab. With the type and equally common. 



