NORTH AMERICAN BOSTRICHIDAE 69 



like tubercles on each side along lateral margin. Scutellum densely 

 clothed with short, yellowish hairs. 



Elytra at base subequal in width to pronotum at middle, truncate 

 at base, each elytron with a large, arcuate spine or tubercle at top 

 of apical declivity, the tubercles turned inward toward sutural mar- 

 gins ; sutural margins slightly elevated on apical declivity ; sides paral- 

 lel, conjointly broadly rounded at apices, the margins thickened and 

 elevated toward apices; surface coarsely, irregularly, more or less 

 confluently punctate. 



Body beneath finely, densely punctate, with a few large punctures 

 intermixed on abdomen, densely, uniformly clothed with short, recum- 

 bent, yellowish-white hairs, with a few long, erect, yellowish hairs on 

 abdominal sternites. 



Female. — Differs from the male in having a vague costiform cal- 

 losity on each elytron at the top of the apical declivity. 



Length 6-11.5 mm., width 1.2-3.5 mm. 



Type locality. — Of bicaudatus, above the mouth of the Ohio River. 

 Since the type of this species is lost, the writer is designating a male 

 specimen in the United States National Museum labeled "Charleston, 

 Mo.," collected in a trap lantern, April 18, 1917, by A. F. Satterthwait, 

 as neotype. Of serricollis and aspericollis, Kentucky ; present location 

 of types unknown to writer. Of gracilis, Kansas ; type in the Casey 

 Collection in the United States National Museum. 



Distribution. — This species is distributed throughout southeastern 

 Canada and the greater part of the United States east of the Rocky 

 Mountains. Specimens have been examined from Alabama, Arkansas, 

 Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Ken- 

 tucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ne- 

 braska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, 

 South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. 



Hosts. — Marlatt (1898) and Quaintance and Shear (1921) re- 

 corded bicaudatus as breeding in dying wood, such as large prunings, 

 exposed roots of maple, and diseased and dying branches of most 

 shade and fruit trees. Hubbard (1888) observed the larvae in the 

 underground stems or roots of a species of Smilax at Crescent City, 

 Fla. So far as is known it will not breed in old, dry wood or in vigor- 

 ous live growth, but seems to need wood in a dying or diseased condi- 

 tion. The adults have been recorded as attacking living twigs or 

 small branches of white ash, butternut, pecan, hickory, pear, apple, 

 apricot, plum, peach, cherry, and grape. Injuries by this species 

 seem to be confined to the adults, which bore into the live twigs im- 

 mediately above a bud. Undoubtedly this boring is partly for food, 

 and certainly has nothing to do with egg laying. The injury to grape 

 canes and apple twigs results in the wilting and dying of the adja- 

 cent shoots, and in some cases grapevines have been killed during 

 the early spring months. 



Horn (1878) suggested that Apate hamatus described by Fabri- 

 cius s from Saxony, might by chance be the species described by Say 

 (1824) from America as Apate b icaudatus. Lesne (1899) suppressed 

 bicaudatus Say as a synonym of hamatus Fabricius, without giving 



5 Fabricius. J. C. mantissa insectorum, v. 5, p. 33. 1787. 



