40 MISC. PUBLICATION 69 8, TJ. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



late, the punctures arranged in more or less distinct rows, sparsely 

 clothed with short, recurved, yellowish hairs, which are about as long 

 as the intervals between the punctures on anterior part of disk; 

 apical declivity sparsely clothed with short, erect, yellowish hairs, 

 without tubercles, densely, coarsely, irregularly punctate and granu- 

 lose on the intervals in both sexes. 



Body beneath sparsely clothed with rather long, recumbent, yel- 

 lowish hairs ; abdomen finely, indistinctly punctate and finely, densely 

 granulose. 



Length 3-4.5 mm., width 1-1.5 mm. 



Type locality. — California, no definite locality ; type in the Horn 

 Collection, in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



Distribution. — This species seems to be restricted to the warmer 

 parts of North America. It has been recorded from various places 

 in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and from Cape San 

 Lucas, Lower California. It has been intercepted at Brooklyn, N. Y. ; 

 Hoboken, N. J. ; Nogales, Ariz. ; El Paso and Laredo, Tex. ; Live Oak 

 and San Francisco, Calif; and Jefferson City, Mo., in corn and 

 wooden ornaments from Mexico. Back and Cotton (1922) state that 

 this tropical beetle, not as yet widely distributed in the United States, 

 is occasionally found infesting corn in the Southern States. Prob- 

 ably it has acquired the grain-feeding habit recently. 



Horn (1878) described the species from two mutilated specimens 

 from California. Riley (1894) under the name of Dinoderus sp. 

 reported it as living in grain and edible tubers from Mexico at the 

 World's Columbian Exposition. Chittenden (1896) recorded it in 

 corn from Mexico at the New Orleans Exposition and also in Mexican 

 seed corn in the Botanical Division of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture. It is able to subsist on almost any kind of roots and 

 tubers, and would cause great damage if it should become generally 

 established in the granaries, as the adults have the habit of leaving 

 the grain and boring into the wood, and have been known to bore into 

 both pine and black walnut. Lesne (1898) recorded a single specimen 

 taken at Rouen in Salsepareille, a plant of the genus Smilax imported 

 from Central America. Chittenden (1911) stated that this species 

 seems to prefer corn, especially corn on the ear, and that tubers and 

 roots serve as a natural breeding place. 



Prostephanus apax Lesne 



Prostephanius apax Lesne, 1930, Soc. Ent. de France Bui., pp. 102-103; 1938, 

 in Junk (pub.), Coleopt. Cat., pt. 161. p. 22. 



Reddish brown to brownish black, the palpi, antennae, and legs 

 paler. 



Head with front finely, densely punctate, smooth along anterior 

 margin, sparsely clothed with long, inconspicuous, semierect hairs, 

 feebly, obliquely deflexed at anterior margin; clypeus flat, finely, 

 densely punctate posteriorly, sparsely clothed with long, inconspicu- 

 ous, semierect hairs, with two small distinct tubercles at middle along 

 anterior margin. Antennal club densely clothed with short, recum- 

 bent, yellowish hairs, with a few long, erect hairs intermixed, the first 

 and second segments transverse, subtriangular, and third oblong. 



Pronotum strongly, uniformly convex, widest near basal third, 

 without a distinct, longitudinal groove at middle of disk ; sides with- 





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