THE PRIMITIVE WEEVILS. 21 



The first is more northern, the second more southern in dis- 

 tribution, hut all three are among the Indiana material at hand. 

 Xo difference is recognizable in the females, and they may be con- 

 sidered as only individual variations of the same species. 



A male in the senior author's collection from Marion county, 

 Indiana, measuring only ~> mm. in length, with the thorax almost 

 impunctate, widest at middle instead of behind the middle, the 

 beak shorter than the thorax, and the color uniform pale red- 

 dish-brown, with a small fuscous spot behind the middle of 

 elytra, presents a stronger departure from the usual form than 

 either of Power's varieties, and may be known as variety 

 paupercula. 



Of the combats of the males of this northern Itrentbian Le- 

 Tonte 1188:5, o<H>) has said: "They result in no injury to either 

 of the parties engaged, the dense chitinous covering affording' 

 a perfect protection. The weaker male, overcome by exhaustion, 

 eventually flees and leaves to his more vigorous victor the hon- 

 orable task of guarding- and assisting the fair object of strife ill 

 her efforts to preserve the species." And again (1876, 326) he 

 says : "The measurements show a slight average superiority of 

 size in the male, but not sufficient to warrant any generalization 

 in favor of sexual selection, produced by the bloodless combat of 

 these insects, which seem to be actuated rather by chivalric sen- 

 timent than by animal passion." Smith says that when the 

 beaks of the females become wedged, as they sometimes do, the 

 males use their forceps-like jaws to pull them out, but Riley 

 (1874, 115) states that the male helps in removing the beak by 

 "stationing himself at a right angle with her body and pressing 

 his heavy prosternum against the tip of her abdomen, her stout 

 fore legs thus serving as a fulcrum and her long body as a lever." 



II. TRACHELIZUS Schou., 1840. (Gr., "straight" + "neck.") 



This genus, characterized in the key, is represented in this 

 country by the single species 



2 (- -). TRACHELIZUS VXCIMA.M-.S Boh., Schon., 1839, 496. 



Brown, more or less shining. Beak nearly alike in the two sexes, the 

 basal part as long as apical and of equal width, male, shorter and broader 

 than the apical part, female. Thorax nearly impimetate with a strong 

 longitudinal median impression. Elytra nearly parallel with strongly im- 

 pressed sutural striae which are impunctate, the other strife represented by 

 rows of feebly impressed punctures, except the three near side margin, 

 which are deeply impressed. Suture between first and second ventrals 

 obliterated at middle, visible at sides. Femora and tibise unarmed. 

 Length 16 mm. 



