226 ' H. E. EWING. 



(Bneus Boh. of the eastern states. I may here add that the real 

 Rhynchites ceneiis Boh. is a very hirsute species; it has well- 

 developed punctate striations on the elytra, and prominent 

 marginal elytral grooves. Our black Oregon form has none of 

 these characters pronounced, — the hairs are very small, the 

 punctations in the elytral striae are almost obsolete, and the 

 marginal grooves of the elytra can hardly be noticed. 



Mating and Other Habits. 

 During the spring and summer of 19 14 I made many field 

 notes on these two forms of Rhynchites. I found that the two 

 were constantly associated. They fed together in the same way 

 on the same rose bushes and even on the same buds. They 

 were found to feed together on wild blackberries; they emerged 

 from winter quarters at the same time, and, finally, they were 

 repeatedly found to be interbreeding in nature. 



Attempts at Rearing Hybrids. 



Four of the individuals of the black form which were found 

 mating in nature with red individuals were confined with their 

 red mates in separate breeding cages. Here they continued to 

 breed for over a month, after which they began to die. In the 

 meantime the females had laid large numbers of eggs; but out 

 of this large number, including several score, I am very sorry to 

 state that I did not succeed in rearing a single individual to 

 maturity. The whole trouble this year was that the buds of 

 the roses soon died after they were punctured by the female, 

 and fell to the ground, taking with them the developing larvae. 

 In these dead, shriveled rose-buds the larvae invariably died. 

 Even their transference to fresh rose-buds was of no use, for 

 they would not stay in these buds when placed there artificially. 

 None of these larvae pupated. 



It may be well to state that in all the literature which I have 

 examined I have failed to find a single record of this weevil 

 being reared from the egg to its adult state. Its life history 

 has not been worked out by complete breeding experiments, 

 although repeated field observations, together with fragmentary 

 notes on the life history, have shown that it produces but a 

 single brood a year and hibernates in the adult stage. 



