202 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE CHERRY. 



No. 105. — The Spotted Horn-beetle. 



Dynastes tityus (Linn.). 



This is an enormous beetle, some two inches in length, 

 exclusive of its horns. It is of a pale-olive color, with the 

 wing-covers spotted and dotted with black. In the males 

 the middle of the thorax is extended forward in the form of 

 a long black horn, which is hairy along its under side, and 



usually notched at 

 Fig. 208. its tip, as if formed 



to receive the sharp 

 point of another 

 similar horn, which 

 curves upwards from 

 the crown of the 

 head. There are 

 two other horns be- 

 tween these, short 

 and sharp-pointed. 

 The f e m al e is 

 smaller than the 

 male, and unarmed, 

 except with a small 

 tubercle on the 

 head. Fig. 208 

 represents the male. 

 The beetle occasionally varies in color : specimens have 

 been found with chestnut-brown wing-covers, others \vitli the 

 thorax black ; and in one instance a male was taken with one 

 of the wing-covers black, while the other was of tlie normal 

 character. 



The larva of this insect bores in old, decaying cherry-trees. 

 It somewhat resembles that of the rough Osmoderma, jSTo. 8, 

 but is much larger. The beetle is frequently met with in the 

 South, and is sometimes found as far north as Pennsylvania, 

 but the damage it inflicts is very slight. 



