THE LESSER CLOVER-LEAF WEEVIL. 5 



southward, drifted with the tide into the mouth of the Chesapeake 

 Bay, and left with the driftwood and other rubbish where they can 

 easily make their way to higher lands where their food plants occur 

 in greater or less abundance. 



No one has actually followed out this possible means of disper- 

 sion, but in accounting for the occurrence of transatlantic species 

 which are known to have been introduced into either extreme eastern 

 Canada or New England, and in a number of cases found about Nor- 

 folk and Fortress Monroe, it seems possible that some element of 

 this nature is at work. It would be a profitable investigation for 

 anyone who was conveniently situated to take measures to deter- 

 mine whether or not these introduced species may in this manner 

 be carried southward and lodged along the coast. 



INVESTIGATIONS CARRIED ON IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 



AND VICINITY. 



As has just been shown, the species has been known for some time 

 both to the north and south of the District of Columbia, but only 

 within a couple of years has it 

 become at all common in the 

 immediate vicinity of Wash- 

 ington. The information here 

 given was obtained through 

 the combined efforts of several 

 field assistants, during brief 

 temporary periods passed here 

 in Washington, and well illus- 



. , , -, Fig. 1.— The lesser clover-leaf weevil {Phytonomus 



trateS What may be aCCOUl- nigrirostris): Adult, much enlarged. (Original.) 



plished by a free and hearty 



cooperation among individuals composing a limited body of investi- 

 gators, even when working under very serious disadvantages. 



No credit whatever is to be accorded the author, beyond the direc- 

 tion of these investigations and a compilation of the results obtained. 



The first note to be made on the species, here in the District of 

 Columbia, was by Mr. Paul Hayhurst, who found, June 27, 1907, a 

 single adult (fig. 1) on a leaf of red clover, Trifolium pratense, close by 

 a freshly eaten hole in the leaf. The locality where it was found, 

 Grant road, lies just north of the city and within the District. 



Next, and nearly a year later, Mr. C. N. Ainslie, while awaiting a train 

 connection at Weverton, about 50 miles northwest of Washington, 

 in Maryland, found the blooming heads of clover infested as described 

 below, but of course did not recognize the species until the adult 

 was reared. The notes on this collection of ^arvse are as follows : 



"A handful of red clover heads infested with larvae was gath- 

 ered, May 20, 1908, beside the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad sta- 



99370°— Bull. 85—11 2 



