NORTH AMERICAN BUPRESTID BEETLES 237 



Variations. — This species shows considerable variation. The color 

 is usually bronzy cupreous, but occasionally a specimen is found of 

 an olivaceous green color. The pubescence on the head and abdomen 

 varies in length and density, in color from yellowish white to silvery 

 white, and in well-preserved specimens these pubescent areas are 

 densely covered with a white efflorescence, which is easily lost by 

 abrasion. The front of the head is more deeply depressed in some 

 specimens than in others, and in some examples the prehumeral 

 carinae are quite distinct, Avhereas in others they are only feebly 

 indicated. The gibbosity on the pronotum is also more prominent 

 in some examples than in others. Length 4.75 to 7.5 millimeters. 



Host. — The larval habits are unknown, but the adults have been 

 collected by W. Knaus in Utah on the foliage of scrub oak 

 (Quercus sp.). 



This species can be easily separated from all previously described 

 species of this genus having the antennae serrate from the fifth joint 

 by the pronotum being distinctly gibbose. Professor Wickham sent 

 me the type of his mereurius for study, and suggested that it was 

 probably the same as gibbicollis described by Fall, but which was 

 unknown to him at the time he described his species. I have care- 

 fully compared his type of mereurius with the type of gibbicollis 

 and can not find any specific differences, and, since gibbicollis has 

 priority, mereurius becomes a synonym of that species. The type of 

 -mereurius is of an olivaceous green color, and has the white efflores- 

 cence well preserved, which causes the pubescent vittae to stand out 

 quite prominently. 



78. AGRILUS PUBIFRONS, new species 



Female. — Form robust, subcylindrical, feebly shining; head and 

 pronotum cupreous brown; elytra bronzy brown, and each elytron 

 ornamented with a pubescent vitta extending from basal depression 

 to apex ; beneath cupreous, and more shining than above. 



Head with the front rather wide, feebly convex, slightly wider at 

 top than at bottom, the lateral margins feebly, obliquely expanded 

 from bottom to top, and with a narrow, obsolete groove extending 

 from occiput to middle of front; surface rather densely, finely 

 punctate, coarsely, irregularly rugose, and rather densely clothed 

 with long, recumbent, whitish pubescence; epistoma slightly trans- 

 verse between the antennae, and broadly, rather deeply, arcuately 

 emarginate in front; antennae extending to middle of pronotum, 

 serrate from the fifth joint, and the outer joints about as wide as 

 long; eyes not very large, and about equally rounded above and 

 beneath. 



Pronotum nearly one-third wider than long, slightly narrower at 

 base than apex, and widest near the middle ; sides arcuately rounded 



