April, '17] HYSLOP: CEUTORHYXCHUS MARGINATUS 279 



by Prof. Glen W. Herrick at Ithaca, N. Y. Mr. E. A. Schwarz, of the 

 U. S. National Museum, very kindly determined this material and in 

 doing so remarked that he had collected the adults on Plummer's 

 Island near Washington, D. C, about ten years ago. On reexamining 

 the material collected in 1914, it also proved to be this beetle and not 

 Rhinoncus pyrrhopus for which it was originally mistaken. The out- 

 break at Bridgeport was very general, nearly every seed head of the 

 dandelion being infested, which seems to indicate that the insect has 

 been established there for several years. Mr. Schwarz's record from 

 Maryland and the records published by Blatchley and Leng indicate a 

 wide distribution in the Eastern States. That this insect should be 

 established for so long a time and in so wide and generally collected a 

 territory and still be unrecorded seemed quite remarkable. The genus 

 contains other species of economic importance, among which might be 

 mentioned Ceutorhynchus rapce Gyll., the common cabbage weevil, C. 

 quadridens, another introduced species which Chittenden records 

 attacking radish, cabbage, carrots, etc., on Long Island, and the new 

 species recorded and described by Pierce^ (C. lesquellce Pierce) which is 

 a serious cabbage pest in Texas. The only published European 

 observations on the habits of this beetle, those of J. H. Kawall pub- 

 lished fifty years ago in the Stettener Entomologische Zeitung,^ are so 

 minutely paralleled by our observations that I herewith publish a free 

 translation. 



The species C. marginatus Payk. was long recognized as a variety of 

 punctiger Schonn, the more recent workers now recognize the insects 

 as a distinct species, and from the localities we conclude that the one 

 spoken of by Kawall as punctiger was in reahty marginatus Payk. 



"As early as 1859 I had noticed on the seed heads of Taraxicum 

 officinale Wigg. (the dandelion), which had split open and spread out 

 their seed feathers, and after the seed had blown away, that the fruit 

 receptacle was often stained with brown on the upper surface and 

 eaten out cavities were to be seen. I had not, however, found the 

 originator of this damage. At last I had the good fortune to find a 

 seed head in an opening in the seed capsule of which a footless whitish 

 maggot had wedged itself. I placed this find in a box but the little 

 animal failed to transform, the maggot shrivelling up probably from 

 lack of moisture. The following year I searched vainly for such 

 larvae. Eaten out fruit capsules were easily to be found but were al- 

 ways empty. Notwithstanding this I again began the fruitless search 

 in May, 1861. I continued to examine the completely opened heads 

 and also the unopened buds. I then began to examine the seed heads 

 upon which the shrivelled petals were still adhering but which could be 

 knocked off with a very slight touch, these seed heads were still closed. 



1 Journ. Econ. Ent. vol. Ill, p. 366, 1910. 



2 Stett. Ent. Zeit., vol. XXVIII, p. 118, 1867. 



