44 



DETERMINATION OF THE SPECIES. 



Specimens of the pepi^er weevil were submitted to Mr. Schwarz, 

 who reports as folloAvs: 



It is a species of Anthonomus hithei'to not recorded from the United States, 

 and is no doubt A. wncotinctus, described by Mr. G. C. Champion in the Biologia 

 Centrali-Americana.o The few specimens found at San Antonio in November by 

 Mr. Wall<er and myself on pepper plants agree perfectly with Champion's 

 description. However, all the numerous specimens bred by Mr. Walker from 

 pepper plants at Boerne, Tex., uniformly differ in having the legs throughout of 

 a briglit orange-yellow color, whereas in the more typical specimens the thighs 

 are dark except at base. The difference, striking as it is, is most probably due 

 to the immature condition of the Boerne specimens and the mature condition of 



the tyjies. The pepper weevil, which is often con- 

 founded by farmers with the cotton-boll weevil, is 

 much smaller and much shorter than the smallest 

 specimens of the cotton-boll weevil. The legs are 

 much shorter ; the elytra are more convex and much 

 less elongate than in the cotton-boll weevil ; and, 

 more especially, the front legs do not have a double 

 tooth as in the boll weevil, but are furnished with 

 a single, not very conspicuous tooth. 



DISTRIBUTION AND DESTRUCTIVENESS. 



According to Mr. Louis Lamm, of Boerne, 

 FIG. i&.-Anthonomus a'neo- ^cx., upoii whosc fami the iusccts occurred 

 tinctus: weevil, much en- in hirgc uumbers, the wecvil had been no- 



larged (after Hunter and j.- i ^i £ ± i • i 



jjj^^g^ ticed there for two seasons, having been 



seen for the first time in October, 1903, and 

 again during the summer of 1904, causing a loss of more than one- 

 third of the crop each year. At San Antonio, Tex., a number of 

 farms were so seriously infested during the previous season that 

 the growing of sweet peppers as a market crop was discontinued by 

 a number of market gardeners. Reports received at the San Antonio 

 market show that a pepper weevil had been common for three or four 

 years in that vicinity; there is not, however, conclusive proof that 

 the insect referred to is identical with the species here considered, 

 since a similar species has been reported on peppers in Texas. There 

 exists an erroneous idea that peppers are often infested with the 

 cotton-boll Aveevil, and it is possible that a confusion of these two 

 s]3ecies has given rise to some of the reports. According to present 

 information, this species is not abundant in the State in localities 

 other than those above mentioned. 



oColeoptera? IV, pt. 4, February, 1903, p. 1G9, PI. X, tig. 5. 



