OF WASHINGTON, VOLUME XV, 1913 143 



1, 2, and 5, discal cell nearly as long as pedicel. Ventral male appendage 

 long, upcurved, with a slender apical piece, pale and bare. 

 Expanse, 19 mm. 



From Batavia, Java. 



PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE FINDING OF A NEW WEEVIL 

 ENEMY OF THE POTATO TUBER. 



BY E. R. SASSCER AND W. DWIGHT PIERCE, Bureau of Entomology. 



On May 21 of the' current year, a number of potato tubers 

 (Solatium tuber osum) from the neighborhood of Huarochiri, Peru, 

 were received by Mr. F. V. Coville and were inspected by one 

 of the authors (E. R. S.) and Mr. H. L. Sanford in accordance 

 with the regulations governing importation of nursery stock by 

 the United States Department of Agriculture. This examina- 

 tion revealed the presence of weevil mines and also those of the 

 potato-tuber moth (Phthorimcea operculella Zell.?). 1 



Material infested with larvae, pupae and adults, and collected 

 by Mr. W. F. Wight for horticultural purposes was received from 

 the following localities on May 24: Cuzco, Temuco, and Are- 

 quipa, Peru; Oruro, Bolivia; and Ancud or San Carlos and Castro 

 islands, Chili. In many instances injury occasioned by these 

 weevils was quite noticeable. But a few of the tubers which 

 superficially appeared to be sound, on being opened, were found 

 to be infested with one, and sometimes two, larvae or adults. 



Two adults were kept alive from May 24 to September 6. 

 During this period they fed but little and then only on foliage of 

 potato. 



This species has been determined by one of the authors (W. D. 

 P.) as Rhigopsidius tucumanus Heller, 2 a species originally de- 

 scribed from Tucuman, Argentine. It belongs to the subfamily 

 of weevils known as Rhytirhinince, tribe Rhytirhinini. The near- 

 est North American insects are the species of the genus Theces- 

 ternus in the tribe Thecesternini of the same subfamily. Nothing 

 whatever is known of the habits of this latter tribe, and the habits 

 of only one species in the Rhytirhinini have been indicated. 



The specimens at hand may be described briefly as follows: 



Length 9 mm., yellowish or purplish brown, with thickly matted vesti- 

 ture of a cinerous shade mottled with black dots. Head concealed from 

 above by prothorax and eyes, almost covered by the lateral prothoracic 

 lobes. Beak moderately short, usually reposing in a deep pocket of the 



1 Dotermincd 1>\- .Mr. August Busrk. 



- Stett. Km. Zeit., 190G, vol. 07, pp. 7-9, pi. I figs. 3, 3a, 3b. 



