378 JOURNAL OP ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 2 



27, at Natchez, Miss., I found two fresh-looking adults clinging to 

 stems of fallen berries, from which they had probably just emerged, 

 and a young larva found at the same time in a berry selected from 

 other infested ones matured June 17 in isolation. Few larv^ie were 

 found in old fallen berries at Tallulah, La., on October 1. 



An additional food-plant, concerning which no former record is 

 known to me, has been reported by Mr. J. D. Mitchell, who submitted 

 an adult weevil with the statement that it emerged on February 21 

 from castor bean {Ricimis communis Linn.), collected December 21 at 

 Victoria, Tex. At Baton Rouge, La., on April 13, Mr. W. D. Pierce 

 obtained an adult and larva in an old rotten fig, which had been hang- 

 ing on the tree, but earlier mention of the weevil's depredations in 

 fig products has been made by Mr. E. Barlow with respect to Chinese 

 figs, (1), and by Dr. F. H. Chittenden in regard to fig cakes, (7). 



The statement previously made regarding its breeding in beans is ap- 

 plicable to such as possess aromatic properties. Dr. F. H. Chittenden, 

 who bestowed the common name of "Coffee-bean weevil" upon the in- 

 sect, is the leading authority upon the omnivorous habits of the pest 

 in attacking vegetable substances, (5, 6, 7.) Being transported in 

 tropical products the insect has become cosmopolitan as an indirect re- 

 sult of world-wide traffic, thus accounting for its introduction into the 

 United States. The immature stages, as a rule, are pure white, al- 

 though generally covered with the fine powdered debris of the burrow ; 

 but occasionally in the cornstalks and rarely in cotton bolls pink col- 

 ored examples of both larvfe and pupge were found. 



Literature Consulted 



1. Barlow, E. Notes on insect pests from the entomological section, In- 



dian museum. (Indian Museum Notes, IV, No. 3, Govt. India, Dept. 

 Rev. and Agric, 1899, pp. 125-127, pi. XI, fig. 3, larva, pupa, dorsal and 

 side views of adult.) 



Called the areca-nut beetle from its attacks in stored nuts of Areca 

 catechu, or betel-nut. Mentioned as attacking coffee-berries, ginger, 

 Chinese figs, etc. Article ends with synonymy by Doctor Gemminger 

 et B. de Harold, Catalogus Coleopterorum. 



2. Beutenmuller, Wm. On the food-habits of North American Rhyncophora. 



(Jour. N. Y. Ent. Soc, I, 1893, p. 88.) 

 Quotes Mr. E. A. Schwarz's record, see 25. 



3. Blackburn, T., and Sharp, D. Memoirs on the Coleoptera of the Ha- 



waiian Islands. (Sc. Trans. Royal Dublin Soc, III, ser. II, Feb., 1885, 

 p. 260.) 



"Widely distributed. Common in decaying leaves wherever they 

 are heaped up from any cause, and occasionally beaten from fresh 



