A few species are found under the bark of trees where they feed on dead insects. 
Some are troublesome pests in collections of insects or stuffed animals, on which 
they feed. The hide beetle, Dermestes maculatus De Geer, and the larder beetle, 
D. lardarius L., have damaged cargoes of lumber in ship holds where hides were 
stored previously. In efforts to construct pupal chambers, D. maculatus has also 
been known to damage seriously the surface of lumber in warehouses. The majority 
of dermestids feed on skins, dried meats, furs, and carpets. 
Family Buprestidae 
Flatheaded Borers 
The flatheaded borers include several destructive pests of forest and shade trees. 
More than 150 species and varieties have been recorded east of the Mississippi 
River (443). The larvae of all species are borers, and they feed in ail parts of the 
tree. Some mine the leaves, and some construct tunnels in the inner bark and outer 
wood of the trunk, branches, and roots. The majority of species, however, excavate 
winding tunnels through sound and decaying sapwood. Many bark-boring species 
are capable of girdling and killing both healthy and injured trees. Wood-boring 
species are often highly destructive of recently felled saw logs, often seriously 
reducing or destroying their usefulness as lumber. 
Buprestid beetles are usually somewhat flattened or oval-shaped and are beau- 
tifully marked or metallic colored. The head is strongly deflexed and is inserted 
into the prothorax to the eyes. The antennae are serrate, | 1-jointed, and inserted on 
the front; the prosternum is prolonged behind and fits into the mesosternum; the 
elytra usually cover the abdomen; and the first two of the abdominal sternites are 
fused. 
Buprestid larvae are distinguished primarily by well-developed ambulatory plates 
on the upper and lower surfaces of the first segment behind the head, by the 
presence of a central line, groove, or V on the upper plate, and by the absence of 
legs. The larvae of all bark- and wood-boring species are typically “‘flatheaded,”’ a 
condition caused by the greatly enlarged first and sometimes second and third 
thoracic segments (fig. 118). Leafmining larvae are flattened, rather oval-shaped, 
deeply notched at the sides, and gradually taper toward the rear. The true head in all 
larvae is comparatively small, more or less retracted into the first thoracic segment, 
and scarcely visible. 
eS 
Courtesy R. T. Frankiin, Univ. Ga. 
Figure 118.—Typical larva of a buprestid or flatheaded 
borer. 
Bark- and wood-boring buprestids deposit their eggs singly or in masses either 
on the bark, in crevices in the bark or wood, or under the bark at the edges of 
wounds. Weakened, injured, dead, or dying trees and stumps are usually attacked. 
Occasionally, green trees are also infested. The larvae feed either under the bark, in 
the sapwood or heartwood, or in two or more of these places. Their mines are 
VALS 
