386 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



6. The peach and cherry flat-headed borer. 



Dicer ca dicaricata Say. 



Order Coleoptera ; family Buprestid^e. 



(Larva, PI. xvi, tig. 2.) 



Boring in red maple stumps, a flat-beaded borer wbose protboracic segment is not 

 80 wide in proportion to tbe two following segments as in Cbrysobotbris larvie. 



Although Fitch says that the beech is uudoubtedly the original resi- 

 dence of this borer, now destructive to cherry aud peach trees, aud 

 that " wherever a dead tree of this kiud occurs some of these beetles 

 will almost always be found upon it on sunny days in midsummer," we 

 have found several of the fully and half grown larvte, with the dead 

 beetle, in a partly rotten stump of the swamp maple at Providence, 

 June 1. The hole for the exit of the beetle is oval cylindrical, S'^'" in 

 its longer diameter and 4'"™ in its shorter. The following description 

 of the larva was drawn up from the larger specimens ; that of the 

 beetle is quoted from Harris : 



Larva. — Protboracic segment moderately broad, not so long as wide, but not so wide 

 in proportion to tbe two succeeding segments as in Cbrysobotbris ; tbe second tboracic 

 segment trapezoidal, narrower tban tbe first by two-tbirdsof its 

 lengtb ; tbird tboracic segment a little narrower and a little longer 

 tban tbe second. All tbe abdominal segments about two-tbirds 

 as wide as tbe tbird tboracic, and round and tbick. Tbe termi- 

 nal segment a little over one balf as wide as tbe one before it. 

 Protboracic seement witb a large broad rough cbitiuous surface, 

 witb an inverted narrow V with long slender arms to tbe V* 

 On tbe underside of tbe segment tbe rougb surface is divided 

 into two by two nearly parallel longitudinal smootb lines. 

 Lengtb of body, 35'""'; lengtb of protboracic segment, .5'"°'; 

 Fig. U3.-Bicerca bread tb, 7"""; widtb of metatboracic segment, S''"" ; width 

 divaricata. Marx del. ^^ ^^ average abdominal segment, 4""". 



The beetle. — Wing-covers much elongated and spreading widely apart at the end ; 

 the insect copper-colored, thickly covered witb little punctures ; the prothorax slightly 

 furrowed in the middle ; tbe wing-covers marked witb numerous fine irregular im- 

 pressed lines and small oblong square elevated black spots ; middle of the breast fur- 

 rowed ; tbe male witb a little tooth on the under side of the shanks of tbe middle pair 

 of legs. Length, 18 to 23'"'i'. 



In addition to the above description of the larva, the following 

 characters may be given. The mouth-parts are as described in Ghryso- 

 bothris femorata, and a drawing could not well show the generic or 

 specific differences between Chrysohothris femorata and D. divaricata as 

 regards these parts. They are as described in C. femorata ; the labium 

 is the same, but with the front edge perhaps a little less full and rounded. 

 The maxillai are perhaps a little fuller. Antennae the same, the third 

 joint minute and rounded. Un the whole, the antenna^and maxillse are 

 a little stouter, and slightly more developed than in C. femorata. The 

 labrum is, however, less full and rounded on the front edge. On the 

 mesothoracic segment is a transverse narrow chitinous area, while that 



