jtmeis, I9IS Sugar-Cane Root-Boring Weevils 261 

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viatus in such a way as to leave no doubt that the three are one species, 

 although the extremes appear so different. It has been taken throughout 

 the year at Buena Vista, Guanica, Santurce, Rio Piedras, Fajardo, 

 Yabucoa, Luquillo, Arecibo, and Cidea, by Messrs. Van Dine, Tower, 

 Jones, Smyth, Johnston, Murphy, and Gardner on sugar cane, grass. 

 Mimosa spp., Ceratonia spp., guava (Psidium guajava), avocado {Per sea 

 gratissima), mango (Mangifera indica), rose, Spondias lutea, Amaranthus 

 spp., Parthenium spp., and orange {Citrus aurantiaca) . It has been 

 reared from the roots of the orange and sugar cane. 



Eggs were obtained and described in September, 191 2, by Mr. Jones. 

 They are oblong, oval, smooth, glistening, milky white, with a rather 

 tough membrane, and measure about 1.2 by 0.4 mm. when newly laid. 

 In confinement the females laid the eggs between the surfaces of two 

 leaves, the leaves being brought together and their surfaces about the 

 ^gg held by an adhesive substance placed between the eggs and around 

 the cluster. The eggs are placed in no regular pattern and are so 

 closely pressed together that their shape is altered. When first laid, 

 the eggs are of a uniform milky white, but within a day after being 

 deposited clear spaces appear at both ends, being more pronounced at 

 one end. Before hatching, these clear spaces disappear, the &gg takes 

 on a faint brownish tinge, and the mouth parts of the larva can be seen 

 through the membrane. 



The newly emerged larvae are white, with a slight brownish tinge, 

 have light-brown heads, and are a trifle more than i mm. in length. 

 They immediately enter the ground and begin feeding on the root sys- 

 tem of the sugar cane or other host. 

 Diaprepes spengleri abbreviatus Olivier. 



4a. The fourth variety varies in scale color from white through 

 green to ochraceous and sometimes has a yellow spot at the sides of the 

 scutellum, as in the preceding varieties. It also has the lateral vitta 

 of empire-yellow, except in the whitest specimens. The denudations 

 of the third and fifth elytral intervals are almost equal and the inter- 

 vening intervals are very narrow. The undersides are very sparsely 

 squamose. Mr. Van Dine's material is from Anasco, Guanica, Ponce, 

 Arecibo, and Barceloneta. Five specimens are at hand from La Yoslina, 

 Porto Rico, collected on July 30, 1900, on shade trees. One is labeled 

 "Diaprepes abbreviatus." Some specimens show a small denuded post- 

 median line on the seventh interval. Size, 10 to 13 mm. (PI. XXXVI, 

 fig. I.) 



4b. This form is light-buff colored in its vestiture and lacks the lateral 

 yellow vitta. The third and fifth intervals are more widely separated. 

 One specimen with black integument from Guanica, Porto Rico, and 

 six specimens with Hessian-brown integument from the Island of 

 Dominica were collected by A. H. Verrill. Size, 9 to 15 mm. 



