214 MISC. PUBLICATION 657, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
woods associated with black lines of decay; J/ycterus scaber Hald., in 
oak, chestnut, and juniper; Orchesia castanea Melsh., in oak, maple. 
tulip, sycamore, and hickory; Serropalpus barbatus (Schall.) and 
Eustrophus tomentosus Say in conifers: Holostrophus bifasciatus 
(Say) and Dircaea quadrimaculata (Say), in a variety of hardwoods. 
FamMiIties SYNCHROIDAE and ZOPHERIDAE 
The larvae of Synchroa punctata Newm. (fig. 45, B) are commonly 
met with in oval cells under the loose bark of hardwood logs and 
stumps, where they feed on the decaying inner bark. They are elon- 
gate, slightly depressed forms, with two patches of chitinous asperities 
on the dorsal surface of two thoracic and five abdominal seoments and 
bear two recurved spines on the ninth abdominal segment. Phedllopsis 
obcordata Kby. closely resembles Synchroa in the larval form but 
has six abdominal segments provided with asperities and makes large 
tunnels loosely filled with coarse boring dust in the sapwood of dead 
hardwood logs and stumps. 
Famitry CEPHALOIDAE 
Cephaloon lepturides Newm. is a common larva in the decaying wood 
of many species of coniferous logs and stumps. It is a white. - fleshy 
form, resembling the melandryids. but has the submentum and gula 
fused and darkly chitinized, hypopharynx chitinized, and two non- 
chitinized, blunt protuberances on the terminal segment. 
Famiry OEDEMERIDAE 
The Oedermerid Beetles 
The oedemerid beetles are slender, semicylindrical to subdepressed, 
soft-bodied insects with the thorax narrower than the elytra, and not 
margined at the sides. The anterior coxal cavities are open behind, 
and the middle coxae are very large. The elytra are rather soft and 
entire, the hind tarsi four-jointed, the first and second being fine. The 
larvae are very elongate, slender, white, soft- bodied forms, with all the 
characters mentioned for the melandryids and, in addition, a well- 
developed grinding structure on the mandible and well-developed 
asperate ampullae on the dorsal and ventral surface of several abdom- 
inal segments. The dorsal surfaces of the mesothorax and metathorax 
are also asperate. 
The larvae of most of these forms occur in dead and rotting woods, 
as do the melandryids, and are not of much pea but one form, 
(fi. 45, 4’), the wharfborer (Nacerda melanura (L.) ), is of economic 
importance in that it hastens the destruction of ee and decks under 
wharves, piling under buildings near the water, and boardwalks along 
the seashore. It is occasionally a pest of telegraph poles. This insect 
is nearly always found in very moist wood, and almost invariably some 
wood- rotting fungi are associated with its work. It occurs along the 
Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes, and is also present in Europe and 
New Zealand. For control measures for this type of borer see pages 
38 and 69. Calopus angustus Lec. is a common form in the stumps of 
conifers that have been dead one or more years. 
