-i67- 



NOTES ON THE HABITS OF SOME SPECIES 

 OF RHYNCHOPHORA. 



BY FRANK 11. CHITTENDEN. 



In preparing" the following notes my aim has been to record 

 facts that are new, or comparatively so, regarding the food habits 

 of certain of our Rhynchophorous Coleoptera. I find several other 

 writers have recorded observations similar to my own, but so little 

 has been written concerning the habits of this group that I have 

 concluded to publish the results of my own personal observations, 

 trusting that they will lose little of value by repetition, but may, on 

 the contrary, serve in a measure to corroborate observations previ- 

 ously published. At the same time I have deemed it advisable in some 

 instances to mention briefly in connection with my own notes certain 

 facts that have been published elsewhere. 



Very little is known concerning the early stages of the Rhyn- 

 chophora, but the frequent occurrence of the imagines on plants of a 

 particular genus or order, though not conclusive evidence that such 

 constitute the food of the larvae, is at least highly suggestive and 

 worth recording. 



In very many instances that have come to my notice the finding 

 of a few specimens of a species of weevil under certain conditions 

 on a plant, point to it as a probable food-plant; the discovery even 

 of a single individual — e. g. a female in the act of depositing her 

 eggs, or of a pair of beetles copulating on a plant is well worth 

 noting down, as the repetition of such occurrence may be taken as 

 more than mere presumptive evidence that the same plant serves as 

 food for the larva;. The finding of the first specimen is followed by 

 another and another until at last that, which was at first a suspicion, 

 becomes an established fact. 



As few weevils are short lived, and not so restricted as some 

 beetles appear to be in the time of their appearance and disappear- 

 ance, I have, in the majority of cases, simply recorded the dates in 

 months. The greater part of these observations were made at 

 Ithaca, N. Y., and the remainder in the neighborhood of New York 

 City. 



Eicgiiamptus aiigustatus Hbst. and E. collaris Fab., I have 

 several times taken together while beating butternut trees, also on 

 chestnut, and on hickory in copula jnXy loth to August 7th. These 

 two forms are usually found together, and are quite generally 

 believed to be identical. 



Phyxclis n'gidns Say hibernates under piles of weeds and rub- 



