64 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
The Buprestids in the perfect state love the daylight and sunshine. Before storms, 
whet] tht; air iscalm ami heavy and thesun is hot, th»-y has.- an extraordinary activity; 
and when t In* weather gradually becomes cloudy and the wind rises they disappear 
from our .sight. We know bat little as to the nature of their food. Chalcophora ma- 
Hana devours the young shoots of pines, Antkaxia morio and ohevrierii eat, the first 
the petals of buttercups, the second those of Ct88U$ dljl»$oidet. Other Anthaxke 
Also, M well as Trachys, freipient different llowers. Aphanixtivux emargimitux occurs 
on rashes (joncs), and I have sometimes taken Acmaodera taniata on the flowers of 
carrots. All these facts lead me to think that the BuprestidS KM phytophagous; 
hut it appears thai certain species are, accidentally at least, carnivorous. This ap- 
pears from a communication made by M.Leon Fairmaire to the Socidtd Entom- 
ologique, in its session of January 10, 1849, relative to the aabjeot of Chrysobolhrin 
iolieri. 
Regarding our oak-borer (C. dentipes), Harris states that it completes 
its transformations and comes out of the trees between the end of May 
and the first of July. This applies to Maine and Massachusetts. In 
New York, according to Dr. Fitch, the beetles are "often found bask- 
ing in the sunshine on the bark of the trees in June and July." 
The beetle. — This insect is so named from the little tooth on the under side of the 
thick forelegs. It is oblong, oval, and flattened, of a bronzed brownish or purplish- 
black color above, copper- colored beneath, and rough-like shagreen, with numerous 
punctures; the thorax is not so wide as the hinder part of the body ; its hinder mar- 
gin is hollowed on both sides to receive the rounded base of each wing-cover, and 
there are two smooth elevated lines on the middle ; on each wing-cover there are 
three irregular, smooth, elevated lines, which are divided and interrupted by large, 
thickly punctured, impressed spots, two of which are oblique: the tips are rounded. 
Length from £ to ^ of an inch. (Harris.) 
7. The flat-headed borer. 
Chrysobothrisfemorata Fabricius. 
Order Coleoptera; Family Buprestid^e. 
Boring under the bark and in the sap-wood of the white oak, and in the Gulf States, 
the pin oak ; a pale-yellow flat-headed grub, closely resembling the preceding species. 
This pernicious borer of the apple tree, as stated both by Harris and 
Fitch, originally infested the white oak, but since the settlement of the 
country has abounded in the apple and 
sometimes in the peach, but may still be 
found to injure the white oak. Riley has 
also found it in the soft maple and weep- 
ing willow. Riley has reared this beetle 
from the oak, apple, mountain ash, box 
elder, peach, and pear, and has found the 
larva in the mountain ash, linden, beech, 
cherry, and peach (7th Rt. Ins. Mo., 72). 
Fig. 18 will fairly represent the "mine" 
or gallery made under the bark of a stump 
of the white oak, as it occurred at Prov- 
idence, R. I. The worm soon after hatch- 
ing made the mine as is seen on the right of 
Fir, 
16.— Chryaobothria femorata 
a. bead ; b, last ventral m 
pnent'of 
male; e, last ventral segment of 
female; '/. tiist leg oi male.— 
Alter Horn. 
