INTRODUCTION. 



This work was begun by the senior author, W. S. Blatchley, 

 as a continuation or supplement to his ''Coleoptera or Beetles of 

 Indiana," published in 1910. After about one-third of the manu- 

 script had been completed the junior author, Chas. W. Leng, 

 wrote that he had a similar work in progress on the Atlantic- 

 Coast species of Rhynchophora and proposed that the two works 

 be combined and the geographical scope enlarged so as to include 

 the United States and Canada east of the Mississippi River. After 

 due consideration the arrangement of a joint authorship was 

 agreed upon, the works as begun were merged, enlarged and 

 mostly rewritten, and the book as issued is the result. 



The only other general work on the weevils or snout beetles of 

 the region covered by this book is that entitled "The Rhyncho- 

 phora of America North of Mexico," issued in 1876 by LeConte 

 & Horn. This work is now out of print and difficult to obtain. 

 While excellent in its plan and scope, its most serious defect is 

 that many species described by Say, Schonherr, LeConte and 

 other authors previous to 1876 are not redescribed but only men- 

 tioned and their synonymy cited, thus compelling the student to 

 search through many additional works in order to name his 

 species. 



As in the "Beetles of Indiana," the primary object of the au- 

 thors has been to furnish to students and tyros in Entomology a 

 simple manual which would enable them in the most direct way 

 possible to arrange, classify and determine the scientific names 

 of the weevils in their collections. With this object constantly in 

 view many statements relating to synonymy and many of the sub- 

 divisions in use by other authors have been omitted in order to 

 render the work less technical and more easily followed by the 

 beginner. 



Following the plan adopted in the "Beetles of Indiana," keys 

 to families, subfamilies, tribes, genera and species have been made 

 an important part of the present work. These keys are based on 

 the more salient or easily recognized characters separating the 

 divisions to which they pertain. In most instances, to avoid repe- 



