THE METALLIC WOOD-BORING BEETLES. 



777 



our Indiana species are usually found upon flowers or upon the 

 trunks and limbs of trees, basking m the sunshine. When disturbed 

 they drop to the ground and feign death. The name of the typical 

 genus, Buprestis, is from two Greek words meaning "ox" and "to 

 blow 'up or swell/" and was applied by the ancients to an insect 

 whose sting caused a swelling in cattle, or which being eaten by 

 cattle in the grass caused them to swell up and die. ' ' The name was 

 afterward applied by Linnaeus to the members of the present family. 



The principal characters, other than those above mentioned, 

 which distinguish the family are the 11-jointed antenna? inserted 

 upon the front, the outer joints furnished with pores; head im- 

 mersed in the thorax to the eyes ; presternum prolonged behind, fit- 

 ting into mesosternum, the latter short, divided into two portions, 

 which complete the front coxa! cavities; elytra covering the abdo- 

 men or leaving but one segment exposed ; abdomen with five ventral 

 segments, the first and second united, the others free ; front and 

 middle coxae globular, with distinct trochantin ; hind coxa? trans- 

 verse, concave behind, dilated into a plate partially covering the 

 femora: tarsi 5-jointed, the first four joints each with more or less 

 developed membranous lobes beneath. 



The larva? of the larger Buprestids are wood, borers, usually 

 living under the bark of trees which are just beginning to decay, 

 though some of them penetrate the solid wood. They are some- 

 what flattened in form, wholly destitute of legs, and have the head 

 small and the first two or three thoracic segments very much broad- 

 ened, so as to give the grubs a hammer-like form. For that reason 

 they' are known as "hammer heads" or "flat-headed borers," and 

 some of them do much injury to orchards. Their burrows are broad 

 and shallow, corresponding with the shape of the larger part of the 

 body. ' These larger Buprestids are usually the first insects to at- 

 tack trees which have been injured by sun scald, forest fires, or 

 which have otherwise had their vitality weakened. They therefore 

 occupy a position intermediate between the genuine wood borers, 

 the Cerambycida? and Scolytiche, which bore into the solid wood, and 

 those other wood, beetles, like some of the Elaterida? and Lucanida?, 

 which inhabit only wood and bark in an advanced stage of decay. 



The larva* of some of the smaller Buprestids, notably those of 

 the slender-bodied species of Agrilus, are shaped like the "flat- 

 heads" above mentioned, and inhabit the stems of small trees and 

 shrubs. One of the best known of these is the "raspberry cane 

 borer," which causes galls on the stems of blackberry and rasp- 

 berry. The larva? of other small, short-bodied forms, are slender 



