8o Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



As to the meaning of Say's B. rectus^ Casey has taken a stand 

 directly opposite to that of all other authors, and I believe cor- 

 rectly. It has been customary to call the smaller chestnut weevil, 

 the one that is most abundant in market nuts, B. rectus; but the 

 creature has a strongly arcuate beak and Say took pains to 

 describe the rectilinear beak of B. rectus^ and called it rectus 

 apparently for that very reason. Gyllenhal, who saw his cotypes, 

 called it rectirostris. To say nothing of the possibility of Say's 

 having no chestnut trees near him, the descriptions all favor 

 Casey's standpoint. 



As to Say's nasutus, the description, while exceptionally short, 

 covers two telling points, the short obtuse form and the white 

 scutellum so obvious in well preserved hazelnut weevils. While 

 Say does not mention the short beak the arrangement of his 

 description from proboscideus down evidently indicates nasutus, 

 the last, as the shortest beaked. I fear that Blanchard's obtusus 

 for the hazelnut weevil must give way to the earlier name. 

 Thus as Say left the matter, at least as I interpret his descrip- 

 tions, Fabricius's name proboscideus was recognized for the 

 larger chestnut weevil, rectus Say was supplied for the long 

 straight-beaked acorn weevil, nasicus Say for the shorter 

 curved-beaked acorn weevil, nasutus Say for the shortest- 

 beaked hazelnut weevil, while the smaller chestnut weevil and 

 the hickory weevil both are left unnamed ; and the shortest- 

 beaked annual-acorn weevil confused with males of nasicus. 



In 1836 Gyllenhal, a European author, altered nasutus, which 

 was preoccupied, to rostratus, rectus to rectirostris, proboscideus 

 to Sayi, and added sparsus; the last I have not yet succeeded 

 in placing. 



In 1843 Boheman, another European, discarded the names pro- 

 boscideus and Sayi and substituted caryatrypes. 



In 1857 Leconte described a Pacific Coast species as uniformis. 

 This is the first description of a species in which both sexes are 

 short-beaked ; but not from the eastern United States. 



In 1873 Dr. Geo. H. Horn wrote the first synopsis, and with 



