14 
potato rot was attributed to this insect, on which assumption it was 
stated that the ravages of the weevil were traced from Mexico to 
Maine. The description of the egg and oviposition is wrong, the eggs 
being described as bright red instead of white in color. During the 
same year Harris published in the New England Farmer (June 22, 
1850, n. s., Vol. II, p. 204) a short account of this species, quoting 
freely from Miss Morris, entering somewhat into detail to show that 
it was probably not the cause of the disease of potato. Harris is cred- 
ited with publishing two more accounts of this species in the next 
year, but they appeared in popular publications, now inaccessible, 
which is true of a large proportion of accounts of this insect published 
by other persons. The writer bas references to about 60 communi- 
cations in regard to this weevil, for the most part short notices of injury 
and brief general accounts, usually compiled, and containing nothing 
original or of value otherwise. For this reason mention will be omitted 
of many of them. In Harris’s Insects Injurious to Vegetation a brief 
popular account is given, based as before on Miss Morris’s writings. 
A short general account was published by Walsh and Riley in 1868 
(Am. Ent., Vol. I, p. 22), with illustrations of the insect in three stages, 
and a similar account by Riley, followed in his First Missouri Report, 
published in 1869 (pp. 94, 95), with mention of the insect’s injurious 
occurrence in Missouri the previous year. 
Several accounts of little consequence followed during succeeding 
years until 1890. During that year the insect became troublesome in 
the State of Iowa, and was the subject of study by Prof. C. P. Gillette 
(Bul. 11, Iowa Agr. Exp. Sta., pp. 490-492). In this account it is 
stated that this:weevil was one of the worst insect pests of the season, 
and the estimate was made that hal? a million of dollars would prob- 
ably fall far short of making good the loss that it occasioned to the 
potato crop in the State of Iowa alone. Two years iater the insect 
was again very injurious in Iowa, as reported by F. A. Sirrine (Bul. 
19, Iowa Agr. Exp. Sta., pp. 589-594). Considerable is added to our 
knowledge of the insect and its wild food plants in this last account. 
In 1893 it was reported to be injurious in Virginia, New Jersey, Lowa, 
and Ohio. In 1894 this weevil is mentioned by R. C. Schiedt (Report 
Penna. State Board of Agriculture, 1894, p. 194) as one of the worst 
insect pests of that year in Pennsylvania. The same year it attracted 
attention by its ravages in New Jersey, and was studied by Prof. 
J. B. Smith, the result taking form in an eight-page article pub- 
lished originally in Bulletin 109, New Jersey Agricultural College 
Experiment Station (pp. 25-32). This account includes three original 
illustrations. The following year this weevil was even more wide- 
spread in New Jersey than in 1894 (Annual Report N. J. Agr. Col. 
Exp. Sta. for 1895, p. 390). 
During 1896 the potato stalk weevil was quite troublesome in Mary- 
