Several other species of Melanophila also occur in eastern 
forests. A few common ones and their hosts are as follows: The 
flatheaded fir borer, M. drummondi (Kirby) —fir, larch, spruce, and 
hemlock; M. notata (Lap.)—pines; M. acuminata (DeG.)— 
spruce, fir, pine, and eastern white cedar (adults are common 
around forest fires and scorched timber) ; and M. aeneola Melsh. 
—pines. 
The genus Brachys Solier contains many species of leaf miners. 
The larvae differ from the larvae of wood- or bark-boring species 
in having the prothorax only slightly, if any, broader than the 
first abdominal segment. The adults are small and oval, and they 
feed on the leaves of hardwoods, sometimes riddling them with 
holes. The larvae mine the tissues of the leaves. B. tesselatus is 
very common on scrub oak in the sandhills of the southeastern 
Coastal Plain. Heavy annual defoliation is not unusual. B. ovata 
(Web.) also mines the leaves of oak. B. aeruginosa (Gory) mines 
the leaves of elms. 
Numerous other species of bark- or wood-boring buprestids are 
also encountered in eastern trees. Ptosima gibbicollis (Say) 
breeds in living red buds. The adult is dark blue, about 6 mm. 
long, and has two yellow spots on each wing cover. Damage is 
sometimes severe. Trachykele lecontei (Gory) breeds in dead 
bald cypress in the Southern States. The adult is dark ashy- 
bronze, with black, velvety spots, and is about 9 mm. long. The 
larvae feed in both the sapwood and heartwood, often causing a 
serious degrade of lumber. Actenodes acornis (Say) breeds in the 
dry heartwood of red maple, birch, beech, oak, and hickory; 
Poecilonta cyanipes (Say) breeds beneath the bark at wounds 
~< : i ae 
F-514869 
FIGURE 51.—Mature larvae 
and galleries of the hem- 
lock borer, Melanophila ful- 
veoguttata, on the surface 
of the sapwood. 
