THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 199 



days later, and this tree showed hardly one insect for every score 

 at the earlier date. 



It was quite early in June, too, that I found, resting on the 

 underside of a limb of the tree, very hard to discern in the shadow, 

 a fairly large grey beetle; about the size of Urographis fasciatus, 

 but abundantly distinct (when the two are set side by side) ; 

 moreover, what to me seemed more important than all, frequenting 

 basswood. Often as I have found Urographis — sometimes in con- 

 siderable numbers — it has always been on oak, maple, or some 

 other tree with exceedingly hard and close-fitting bark. So I set 

 representatives of six or seven related genera, including the true 

 Urographis, alongside of my stranger. The elytra of this latter 

 were rounded at the tip, the hind tarsi all small, and the scape 

 of the antennae short and bulging; it was most like Acanthoderes, 

 or Acanthocinus. These, unfortunately, were at opposite ends of 

 the Tribe Acanthoderini; the subdivision of genera in the tribe is 

 based on the shape of the antennal scapes. In my beetle these 

 were strongly clavate. Apparently, then, it was Acanthoderes; 

 but that genus proved to have dorsal tubercles. My beetle had 

 three shining black spaces on the disk of the thorax, corresponding 

 in size and position to such tubercles, but not in the least gibbous. 

 I then went a step further back to the tribal distinction (between 

 Acanthoderini and Pogonochcerini) ; this depends on the shape of 

 the front coxal cavities. With some misgiving, I immersed one of 

 my three specimens of the beetle in hot water — a baptism w^hich 

 fortunately did no damage. As soon as the joints were relaxed 

 and the surface dry, I went on with my scrutiny. The coxal cavities 

 were distinctly angulated. I turned to the Tribe Pogonocharini, 

 and had the joy of identifying beyond a shadow of doubt, even to 

 the species, and that from LeConte and Horn's masterpiece of 

 generic classification; Hoplosia nubila: a beetle sui generis, so that 

 the description in the key was no less than a detailed etching of 

 the very object before me. The description tallied in every stroke, 

 and to cap it all I found the following notes: In LeConte & Horn — 

 "the genera of this tribe are dispersed by Lacordaire among three 

 groups; the genera have a characteristic habitus, with the exception 

 of Hoplosia, which resembles a Graphisurus, but with the antennae 

 of Acanthoderes; and in Blatchley — ''Hoplosia nubila is said to 

 breed in dry twigs of beech and linden." 



