APPLE TRUNK BUPHESTIS — THE BEE.TLE. 29 



killed from some other cause,; and were almost invariably on the 

 south side of the trees, y^e have since found occasional marks 

 of these insects in other orchards, but never where the trees 

 appeared to have been in perfect health previous to their attacks." 

 This beetle, however, is by no means limited to old and decaying 

 trees, as the observations of the editor of the Ohio Cultivator 

 leads him to infer. The sections of wood sent me by Mr. Barry 

 are from young and thrifty Apple trees j and it occurs in Oaks, 

 also, of this character, as well as those which are aged and 

 perishing. 



Like other species of its family, the Thick-legged Buprestis is variahle in 

 size, measuring from four to five tenths of an inch in length, and ahont two-tenths in 

 width. It is of a black or greenish black color, polished and shining, with the sur- 

 face rough and uneven. The head, and sometimes the thorax, and the depressed 

 portions of the elytra, are of a dull coppery color. The head is sunk into the 

 thorax to the eyes, is densely punctured, and is clothed in front with fine white 

 hairs, which are directed downwards. Upon the middle of the top of the head is a 

 smooth, raised, black line, with a narrow impressed line through its middle, a mark 

 which serves to distinguish this from some of the other species which are closely 

 related to it. The thorax is much more broad than long, and is widest forward of 

 the middle. Its surface is covered with dense, coarsiih punctures, which run into 

 each other in a somewhat transverse direction. It is also somewhat uneven, with slight 

 elevations and hollows, but has not two smooth raised lines on its middle and anterior 

 part, which are met with in another species very similar to this, the Tooth-legged 

 Snapping-beetle, (Chrysobothris denlipes, Germ»r.> The eZjira or wing-covers 

 present a much more rough and unequal surface than any other part of the insect. 

 Three smooth and polished raised lines extend lengthwise of each wing-cover, and 

 the intervals between them are in places occupied by smaller raised lines, which 

 form a kind of net- work; and two impressed transverse spots may also be discerned 

 more or les^ distinctly, dividing each -wing-cover ir*to three nearly equal portions. 

 These spots reach from the inner one of the three raised lines nearly to the outer 

 margin, crossing the two other raised lines, and interrupting them more or less. 

 They are commonly of a cupreous tinge, and densely punctured, but are more 

 smooth than the other portions of the surface. A smaller and more deeply im- 

 pressed spot may commonly be found in the space next to the suture, and forward 

 of the anterior spot, of which it is, as it were, a continuation. The wing covers are 

 _ rounded at their tips, so as to present a slight notch at the suture when they are 

 closed; and the outer margin, towards the tip, has .several very minute, projecting 

 teeth. When the wing-covers are parted the back is discovered to be of a brilliant 

 bluish- green color, and thickly punctured, with a row of large impressed spots along 

 the middle, one on each segment, and half way between these and the outer margin 

 . is another row of smaller impressed dots, having their centres black. The under 

 side of the body and the legs are brilliant coppery, the feet being deep shining green, 

 their last joint and the hooks at its end black. Here also the surface is everywhere 



