58 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 6 



kinds, especially upon dark, warm nights. Thus on the night of 

 June 4, at Crowley, La., they flew into all rooms where there was any 

 light at all and were so numerous in the hotel bed rooms as to be a 

 nuisance. Going upon the streets, I found them even more abundant 

 and from the plate glass windows of business houses raked them up by 

 hundreds and thousands. It was just at this time that the adults 

 were entering the fields of young rice and there feeding and mating. 

 It seems hardly possible that the thousands of weevils flying to the 

 lights could have been only males and spent females. Weevils cap- 

 tured at the lights and confined in test tubes mated freely. It there- 

 fore seems not improbable that lamp trapping just before or during 

 oviposition would possess value as a remedial measure. 



Mating. The adult weevils are very precocious and mate at any and 

 all opportunities. Mating takes place, for the most part, on the rice 

 leaves above the water, where the adults are feeding. The mating is 

 done after the usual fashion and frequently two males will be seen 

 attempting to mate with a single female. The males appear to be the 

 more numerous. If violently disturbed the pairs separate, but with 

 gentle handling will not. In one case a pair was observed to remain 

 in coitu for eight minutes. When confined in test tubes mating takes 

 place immediately and will occur even after the weevils have been 

 confined for several days. Adults collected around bright lights pair 

 freely. 



Difference in Sexes. By observing the weevils in coitu in the field 

 it was noticed that, as a general rule, the females were a trifle larger 

 than the males and the dark (or black) area upon the back was more 

 distinct in the case of females than in the males. This difference in 

 coloration is observable only when the insects are submerged and 

 alive. I do not think this character can be made use of at all in sepa- 

 rating the sexes when observing dried specimens. 



At my request, Mr. W. D. Pierce, of the Bureau of Entomology, 

 made a very close examination of males and females for secondary 

 sexual characters and he was able to determine that in the female 

 the scrobe on the beak, into which the scape of the antenna fits, is 

 slightly curved in female specimens and practically straight in the 

 case of the males. Owing to the natural curvature of the beak this 

 character, while apparently constant, is one difficult to recognize 

 with certainty. 



Egg. Obtained by dissection of the fernale, the egg is found to be 

 pure white, cylindrical, slightly curved and length about five times 

 the diameter. It is barely visible to the naked eye, but can be plainly 

 seen under a half-inch lens. The females have eggs, apparently well 

 developed, in their abdomens at time of mating. I have had no diffi- 



