43 COLEOPTERA. 



larvffi. The solid trunks andi limbs of sound and vigorous 

 trees are often bored through in variotis directions by these 

 insects, which, during a long-continued life, derive their only 

 nourishment from the woody fragments they devour. Pines 

 and firs seem particularly subject to their attacks, but other 

 forest-trees do not escape, and even fruit-trees are frequently 

 injured by these borers. The means to be used for destroy- 

 ing them are similar to those employed against other borers, 

 and will be explained in a subsequent part of this essay. It 

 may not be amiss, however, here to remark, that woodpeckers 

 are much more successftil in discovering the retreats of these 

 borers, and in dragging out the defenceless culprits from their 

 burrows, than the most skilful gardener or nurseryman. 

 The largest of these beetles in this part of tlie United 

 States is the Buprestis (^Ohalcophora) Vir- 

 gijiica (Fig. 22) of Drury, or Virginian 

 Buprestis. It is of an oblong oval form, 

 brassy, or copper-colored ; sometimes almost 

 black, with hardly any metallic reflections. 

 The upper side of the body is roughly punc- 

 tured ; the top of the head is deeply in- 

 dented ; on the thorax there are three pol- 

 ished black elevated lines ; on each wing-cover are two small 

 square impressed spots, a long elevated smooth black line 

 near the outer, and another near the inner margin, vvdth sev- 

 eral short Hues of the same kind between them ; the under- 

 side of the body is sparingly covered with short whitish down. 

 It measures from eight tenths of an inch to one inch or more 

 in length. This beetle appears towards the end of May, and 

 through the month of June, on pine-trees and on fences. In 

 the larva state it bores into the trunks of the different kinds 

 of pines, and is oftentimes very injurious to these trees. 



The wild cherry-tree (^Prunus serotina), and also the 

 garden cherry and peach trees, suffer severely from the at- 

 tacks of borers, which are transformed to the beetles called 

 Buprestis (^Dieerca) divaricata by Mr. Say, because the wing- 



