170 



Classification of Insects: Coleoptera. 



day. The larvae are wood-borers, and chiefly attack forest and 

 fruit trees that are past their prime. The pine and hickory trees 

 especially suffer from their ravages. Their larvae are long, rather 

 flat, yellowish white, and widened near tlie forward part. The 

 head itself is small, and provided with teeth for boring. They in- 



93. Melolontha vulgaris (Male and Female). 



elude the flat-headed larvae found under the bark and in the wood 

 of our fruit trees, and may to some extent be kept out by surround- 

 ing the trunks with tarred paper, and by soaping, white-washing, 

 and cutting out, or by seeking and destroying the perfect insects. 



678. (_d.) The Elaterida, or spring-beetles, are most destructive to 

 wood and roots in the larva state. They are sometimes called wire- 

 worms, and some are wood-eaters, living under the bark; and in the 



