NORTH AMERICAN BUPRESTID BEETLES 329 



as having been reared from hickory (Hicoria sp.), but these records 

 are probably from erroneously identified specimens, and should refer 

 to otiosu$ Say. Frost and Weiss (1920) record it as having been 

 reared from Virginia creeper {Parthenocusus quinquefolia (Lin- 

 naeus) Planchon) by H. B. Kirk, but this is probably only accidental. 

 This species is badly confused in nearly all of the collections, and 

 the citations to it in the literature sometimes refer to other species, 

 so great care should be used in citing any of the older records for 

 this species. It has been frequently confused with otiosus Say, but it 

 can be readily separated from that species by the structure of the 

 antennae. In the group of species in which the serration of the 

 antennae begins with the fifth joint, this species is very closely allied 

 to celti Knull, and the females of these two species can not be sepa- 

 rated satisfactorily, although the males are readily separated on the 

 differences in the genitalia. 



116. AGRILUS ABSTERSUS Horn 



Figure 91 



Agrilus abstersus Horn, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vol. 18, 1891, p. 324. — 

 Chittenden, U. S. Dept. Agric, Div. Ent., Bull. 22, new ser., 1900, 

 p. 67.— Frost and Weiss, Canad. Ent., vol. 52, 1920, p. 222.— Cham- 

 Berlin, Cat. Buprestidae, 1926, p. 47. 



Male. — Form small, moderately elongate, subcylindrical, moder- 

 ately shining and piceous, with a strong aeneous or greenish tinge; 

 beneath slightly more shining than above. 



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

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

 from bottom to top, and without any trace of depressions; surface 

 finely, obsoletely granulose, sparsely, feebly rugose or punctate, and 

 sparsely clothed with rather long, recumbent, whitish hairs ; epistoma 

 rather narrow between the antennae, and broadly, rather deeply, 

 arcuately emarginate in front ; antennae extending to about middle of 

 pronotum. serrate from the fifth joint, and the outer joints about 

 as wide as long ; eyes small, broadly oval, and equally rounded beneath 

 and above. 



Pronotum slightly wider than long and distinctly narrower at 

 base than apex; sides nearly parallel or feebly arcuate from apical 

 angles to basal third, then obliquely narrowed to the posterior 

 angles, which are obtuse; when viewed from the side the marginal 

 and submarginal carinae are nearly straight, rather widely sepa- 

 rated anteriorly, and connected to each other behind the middle; 

 anterior margin slightly sinuate, with a broadly rounded median 

 lobe ; base transversely bisinuate, with a broadly rounded median lobe, 

 which is arcuately emarginate in front of scutellum; disk mod- 



