550 
THE STUDY OF INSECTS. 
prevent the beetles from depositing their eggs on the trees. 
After a tree is once infested, the larvae should be cut out 
with a gouge or a knife. Nursery stock that is infested should 
be promptly burned. 
The Red-necked Agrilus, Agrilus ruficollis (Ag'ri-lus ruf. 
i-col'lis).—This beetle (Fig. 664) is about three tenths 
of an inch long. Its body is narrow and nearly cyl¬ 
indrical. The head is of a dark-bronze color, the 
prothorax of a beautiful coppery bronze, and the 
wing covers black. The larva bores in the stems of 
Fig. 664. raspberry and blackberry, causing a large swelling, 
known as the Raspberry Gouty-gall. These galls should be 
collected and burned in early spring. 
Family Lampyrim: (Lam-pyr'i-dae). 
The Firefly Family or Lampyrids (Lam-py'rids). 
During some warm, moist evening early in our Northern 
June we are startled to see here and there a tiny meteor shoot 
out of the darkness near at hand, and we suddenly realize that 
summer is close upon us, heralded by her mysterious mes¬ 
sengers, the fireflies. A week or two later these little torch- 
bearers appear in full force, and the gloom that overhangs 
marshes and wet meadows, the dusk that shrouds the banks 
of streams and ponds, the darkness that haunts the borders 
of forests, are illumined with myriads of flashes as these 
silent, winged hosts move hither and thither under the cover 
of the night. 
The fireflies are soft-bodied beetles of medium or small 
size, with slender, usually eleven-jointed, saw-like an¬ 
tennae. The prothorax is expanded into a thin pro¬ 
jecting margin, which in most cases completely 
covers the head (Fig. 66 $). The wing-covers are 
rather soft, and never strongly embrace the sides of F,c - 66 s- 
the abdomen, as with most other beetles. 
Most members of this family are nocturnal insects, and 
