TIUHK VII. EIIIRI 1 1 X I X I . 



229 



two, 3 G gradually wider; tibue rather stout, somewhat curved, 

 armed with a strong terminal hook; tarsi narrow, third joint 

 neither emarginate nor bilobed, fourth as long as the two pre- 

 ceding, the claws slender, approximate. 



325 (8582). LISSORHOPTHITS SIMPLEX Say, 1831, 29; ibid, I, 297. 



Oblong-oval. Black, densely clothed with a coating of large, olive- 

 gray scales; elytra of female often with a large, indistinct fuscous area; 

 antenme and tarsi reddish-brown. Beak stout, as long as thorax, subcylin- 

 drical, densely rugosely punctate. Thorax as long as wide, slightly con- 

 stricted near apex, sides feebly rounded; disc with a faint, finely 'im- 

 pressed median line, densely rugosely punctate; sides at middle with a 

 shallow, transverse impression. Elytra at base one-third wider than 

 thorax, humeri oblique; sides very feebly converging for two-thirds their 

 length, then strongly so to the narrowed apex; strial punctures rather 

 small, close-set, intervals each with one or more small tubercles near the 

 apical declivity. Length 2.8 3.2 mm. (Fig. 68.) 



Lake, Kosciusko, Wells and Dubois counties, Ind. ; probably 

 throughout the State; May 9 July 10. Swept 

 from grasses and sedges near lakes and ponds. 

 Hudson Co., Hoboken salt meadows and Irving- 

 ton, X. J. Dunedin, Fla., March 14. Ranges 

 from Canada and New England to Michigan 

 and Iowa, south to Florida and Texas. 



Known as the "rice water-weevil, 1 " and doing- 

 more damage to rice crops in the southern 

 states than any other insect. Tucker (1912) 

 states that the larva, known as the "rice-root 

 maggot," devours the roots while the adults 

 feed on the foliage of the young and tender 

 ^^ 'show- plants. Water is the element in which the 

 tion^f'aub^tAfte; beetle delights, and it breeds only in plants 



growing in it. It swims readily on or beneath 

 the surface, and feeds, rests and mates almost as frequently in 

 the water as above it. Two specimens were kept by C. E. Hood 

 96 hours under water before dying. The adults hibernate, prin- 

 cipally in Spanish moss, the eggs being laid in early spring and 

 the beetles maturing in July. The most practical method of 

 control is the drainage of infested rice fields and allowing them 

 to dry suffiently to kill the larva 1 before the latter have greatly 

 weakened the plants. Besides cultivated rice, L. sintfrtc.r feeds 

 also on wild rice, arrow-head, bulrushes and water-lilies. 



326 (85S3). LissoiiiiopTRus APICULATUS Gyll., Schn., 1836, 320. 



Differs from simplex in having the antennal club fuscous, beak more 

 slender, as long as head and thorax, less densely scaly. Thorax slightly 



