228 H. E. EWING. 



Rhynchites hicolor Fab., normal S88 



Black form 68 



Total for both forms 656 



Thus out of the total of 656 individuals counted, 68, or 11 

 per cent, were melanic. This percentage is so large that I 

 think that no one would suspect the occurrence of melanism in 

 this species to be due to the sudden sporting of a great many- 

 individuals, but rather to the persistence of melanism through 

 segregate inheritance of the melanic types from a few or even 

 a single sport progenitor. In other words either melanism or 

 other characteristics associated with it in this instance have 

 been advantageous to the black forms under the particular 

 conditions of the Willamette Valley to such an extent that a 

 black or melanic race has been evolved in direct competition 

 with the normal type of the species from which it sprang, and 

 has not been ruthlessly eliminated as a race as is usually the 

 case with melanic forms. 



The future of this black race of rose curculios will be interesting 

 to watch. I hope to be able soon to breed these forms success- 

 fully, and also hope to be able to ascertain what the conditions 

 are in the Willamette Valley which apparently make melanism 

 advantageous to this curculio. A description of this melanic 

 form is here given. Even in the Willamette Valley its distribu- 

 tion differs from that of the normal R. hicolor. -> 

 Rhynchites pullatus new variety, or species. 



All the individuals as yet observed are black throijghout. 

 Body and appendages clothed with very fine short hairs which 

 are not noticeable with the naked eye. Snout subequal to the 

 tibia of the first pair of legs in length, bent almost straight down- 

 ward in the male, but extending forward so as to be plainly 

 visible from above in the case of the female. The antennae 

 arise from a position a little in front of the middle of the snout 

 in the male and a little behind the middle of the snout in the 

 female. Antennee well clothed with hairs ; three distal segments 

 much broader than the others and forming a club. Dorsal sur- 

 face of thorax punctate. Around the margins of each elytron 

 is a distinct groove. The longitudinal punctate lines are rather 

 indistinct, and may be wanting. Femora of anterior legs some- 

 what swollen. Length of body excluding snout, 5.5-7.0 mm. 



