733 
No. 145.J 
killed from some other cause, and were almost invariably on the 
south side of the trees. We 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; 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 variable in 
size, measuring from four to five tenths of an inch in length, and about 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, coarsish 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 dentipes, Germar.} The elytra 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 less distinctly, dividing each wing-cover into 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 puucturcd, 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 
