31 



not seen any mention of it attacking the maple, but T have bred specimens of the beetle 

 from pupa? taken under the bark of a fallen sugar-maple. These pupae were found in May, 

 and the beetles appeared on 15th June. The larva is a flattened white grub, about half 

 an inch long, mining between the wood and bark, and loosening the latter, to the injury of 

 the trees infested. The beetle has a lateral red line bordering the thorax and elytra, giving 

 off three tooth-like projections on each elytron, whence the specific name. 



The Lucanidae are beetles whose larvse live in decomposing wood, subsisting on the 

 juices thereof, like those of several of our largest Scarabaebidae. Such habits are rather 

 beneficial than otherwise, as the reduction of fallen timber is thereby hastened, but in 

 some cases injury may be done to living trees by the enlargement of accidental crevices and 

 cavities. Injury may, however be done by the beetles themselves as they sometimes attack 

 foliage. 



47. Platycerus quercus, Weber. On 6th May 1881 I noticed young maples evidently 

 attacked by some insect, as many of the leaf buds, then almost ready to open, were partly 

 withered and destroyed. On examination I found within several of the buds beetles, then 

 new to me, which proved to be the species under consideration. The beetle had first 

 gnawed a hole into the centre of the bud, and then in concealment had feasted on the 

 tender substance of the young leaves. In one instance a pair of beetles (male and female) 

 were found in the same cavity. I have since found the beetles upon the leaves of various 

 trees, and the larvse in old logs and stumps of elm, etc. The beetle is a little less than 

 half an inch long ; flattened and black with sometimes a greenish hue ; the antennae have 

 the terminal joints lamellate, and the mandibles in the male are prolonged like a pair of 

 pincers, those of the female are shorter and she is reddish underneath. 



48. Dorcus parallelus, Say is a much larger beetle, being an inch long. The male 

 has head, thorax and abdomen all of equal width, (whence the specific name) but in the 

 female the thorax is more round iu front and the head smaller. The jaws of the male are 

 large and toothed, those of the other sex small. The beetles are found under the loose bark 

 of old sugar-maples, the larvae living in the decaying parts of the trees. 



49. Ptilinus ruficomis, Say. Family Ptinidae. This is a little brownish beetle not 

 more than one-fifth of an inch long, and having the head almost hidden by the thorax. 

 The male is much smaller and has pretty reddish pectinate antennae. The beetles are <rery 

 common and attack various trees, both living and dead. When a tree— say oak, hickory 

 or maple — has been injured by blazing or peeling of bark, this little beetle may frequently 

 be seen boring into the exposed wood ; or if the iujury is an old one perhaps numbers may 

 be found emerging. I have seen great numbers issuing from maple trees, leaving the 

 wood riddled with small holes. 



50. Xestoblum affine, Lee, belonging to the same family is recorded by Dr. Packard 

 as found in a stump of red maple. I do not know whether it occurs in Canada or not. 



51. Clirysobothris femorater, Lee ; family Buprestidae, is well 

 known as the flat-headed apple-tree borer, (Fig. 15), which has 

 been described and figured so often in our reports. In the Wes- 

 tern States this beetle is said to very seriously injure soft maples. 

 I have not observed it to attack our maples here, but have found 

 it to infest hickories. 



52. Dicerca divaricata, Say., belongs to the same family and 

 is larger. It greatly infests old, and particularly dead maples, 

 and I have frequently seen the females depositing eggs in such 

 trees. On a bright sunny day in mid-summer an examination of 

 any dead maple or beech will probably show one — perhaps many — 

 of these beetles crawling lazily up and down the trunk or sunning 

 themselves thereon. This species is readily distinguished from 



-p. y. others of the same family (all hard beetles with bronzy or other 



metallic lustres) by the prolonged tips of the elytra diverging. 

 53. Dicerca lugubris, Lee. The only specimen of this beetle which I have taken, was 

 on a shade maple. It is a blackish beetle about the size of the apple-tree chrysobothris. 



