386 FIFTH REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



6. The peach and cherry flat-headed borer. 



Dicer ca divaricata Say. 



Order Coleoptera ; family BuPRESXiDiE. 



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



Boring in red maple stumps, a flat-headed borer whose prothoracic segment is not 

 so wide in proportion to the two following segments as in Chrysobothris larvae. 



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

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

 that " wherever a dead tree of this kind 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 larvse, 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, 8""™ 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. — Prothoracic segment moderately broad, not so long as wide, but not so wide 



in proportion to the two succeeding segments as in Chrysobothris ; the second thoracic 



segment trapezoidal, narrower than the first by two-thirds of its 



length ; third thoracic segment a little narrower and a little longer 



than the second. All the abdominal segments about two-thirds 

 as wide as the third thoracic, and round and thick. The termi- 

 nal segment a little over one half as wide as the one before it. 

 Prothoracic segment with a large broad rough chitiuous surface, 

 with an inverted narrow V with long slender arms to the V* 

 On the underside of the segment the rough surface is divided 

 into two by two nearly parallel longitudinal smooth lines. 

 Length of body, 35"^'" ; length of prothoracic segment, .S""™ ; 

 Fig. U3.-IHcerca breadth, T""* ; width of metathoracic segment, 5™™; width 

 divaricata. Marx del. ^^ ^^ average abdominal segment, 4n'm. 



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

 the i nsect copper-colored, thickly covered with little punctures ; the prothorax slightly 

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

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

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

 of legs. Length, 18 to 23i"™. 



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

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

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

 specific differences between ChrysohothHs feniorata and D. divaricata as 

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

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

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

 joint minute and rounded. Uu the whole, the antennae and maxillae are 

 a little stouter, and slightly more developed than in G.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 



