PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 88 Washington: 1940 No. 3084 



THE SCOLYTID BEETLES OF THE GENUS KENOCIS 

 CASEY, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NINE NEW SPECIES 



By M. W. Blackman 



For more than 45 years specimens of undescribed species of 

 Renocis Casey have been accumulating in the National Museum 

 owing to the efforts of various collectors.^ Most of these si^ecimens 

 were collected in the Southwestern States. The species occurring in 

 these arid and semi-arid regions are found in a variety of hosts. 

 Species of the family Rosaceae {Malus^ Amelanchier, Oercocarpus, 

 Cowam'a, and Pnmus) most frequently serve as hosts, but at least 

 three Leguminosae [Eysenhardtia, Prosopis^ and Parhinsonia) and 

 in addition species of Rhus, Ribes, and Covillea, and of the genus 

 Encelia of the Compositae, are also attacked by one or several species 

 of Renocis. 



It is doubtful whether any of the species ever breed successfully 

 in the vigorous tissues of their hosts; but as the plants upon which 

 they depend are common in grazing lands, a plentiful supply of in- 

 jured and broken shrubs or limbs is always available in such areas. 



* Included among these are E. A. Schwarz, H. G. Hubbard, H. S. Barber, D. W. Coquillett, 

 H. F. Wickhani, and A. D. Hopkins, formerly chief of the division of forest insect investi- 

 gations. U. S. Bureau of Entomolosy, and his field force, including J. M. Miller, F. P. Keen, 

 H. E. Patterson, W. F. Fiske, J. L. Webb, George Hofer, M. Crissman, and B. T. Harvey. 

 Other specimens have been more recently received from the Southwest through J. N. Knull, 

 T. O. Thatcher, and William Nye, and from Brazil through D. da Rocha. Also several 

 series of a Mexican species have been intercepted by the NeAV York, N. Y., Brov.'nsville, Tex., 

 and No<;ales, Ariz., plant quarantine stations of this bureau. 



1907D8— 40 1 373 



