INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE CHERRY. 



ATTACKING THE TRUNK. 



No. 104. — The Divaricated Buprestis. 



Dicerca divaricata (Say). 



This is a beetle belonging to the family Buprestidee, most 

 of the members of which are readily distinguished by tiieir 

 coppery or bronzed appearance. This species (see Fig. 207) 

 is from seven to nine tenths of an inch in length, 

 copper-colored, and sometimes brassy, and thickly ^^' 

 covered with little indentations. The thorax is 

 furrowed in the middle, and the wing-covers are 

 marked with numerous irregular impressed lines 

 and small, elevated, blackish spots. The wing- 

 cases taper much behind, and their long and narrow 

 tips are blunt-pointed, and spread apart a little, 

 the latter peculiarity having given to the insect its specific 

 name, divaricata. The beetles may be found sunning them- 

 selves upon the limbs of cherry and peach trees during June, 

 July, and August; they are active creatures, running briskly 

 up and down the trunks of the trees in the sunshine. 



The female deposits her eggs on the cultivated and wild 

 cherry-trees, and also on the peach, and, when hatched, the 

 young larva bores through the bark and lives in and de- 

 stroys the sap-wood underneath. It is a flattened larva, with 

 its anterior segments very much enlarged, and closely re- 

 sembles that of the flat-headed apple-tree borer. No. 3, Fig. 

 4, but is larger. This insect is seldom very troublesome; 

 should it require attention, the remedies recommended for 

 No. 3 will be equally applicable to this species. 



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