/S Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



Notwithstanding these enemies enough survive to constitute a 

 formidable obstacle to profitable nut cultivation. Brooks has 

 estimated that three fourths of the chestnuts borne by the trees 

 are sometimes destroyed by their attacks and 25 to 50 per cent 

 not unusually ; and since several counties in West Virginia each 

 market annually upwards of $3,000 worth of nuts in spite of 

 this damage, it is easy to see that the damage done in that state 

 alone amounts to a considerable sum. Chittenden gives similar 

 statistics for the pecan industry in the southern states and it 

 requires little imagination to see where the genus Balaninus is 

 unwillingly maintained at a cost of more than $100,000 a year. 

 Apart from their interesting taxonomic character as a singularly 

 distinct and compact group of organisms, they constitute a real 

 live economic problem. 



Taxonomically I am afraid they come near to being a most 

 prodigious blunder, inasmuch as there is hardly a species among 

 them for which can be found an undisturbed name. 



To facilitate the consideration of the taxonomy I may here 

 state that the following species are recognizable : 



1. The larger chestnut weevil, beak twice as long as body in 

 5, much shorter in J*, with the first joint of funicle shorter than 

 second. 



2. The smaller chestnut weevil, beak much longer than body 

 in 5, and arcuate, much shorter in J*, elytra strongly narrowed 

 to apex and distinctly maculate in brown and yellow. 



3. The hickory weevil, beak m'uch longer than body in 5, much 

 shorter in ^, body clothed with hairs rather than scales. 



4. The weevil of biennial-fruiting oaks also with the beak 

 longer than the body in 5) shorter in ^, but with the beak 

 straight in $, pygidium concave, fringed about concavity in ^. 

 This species appears to be the only one that closes with excre- 

 ment the aperture made in egg-laying. 



5. The weevil of annual- fruiting oaks, $ beak arcuate, at most 

 as long as body, J* beak much shorter. 



6. The hazelnut weevil, beak of J* and $ not very different, 

 shorter than body. 



