269 



A NEW WEEVIL PEST OF SWEET POTATOES IN JAMAICA. 

 By Guy A. K. Marshall, D.Sc 



The Imperial Bureau of Entomology lias recently received from Mr. A. H. Ritchie, 

 Government Entomologist in Jamaica, specimens of a weevil which he found to be 

 doing serious injury to the tubers of a crop of sweet potatoes. The insect belongs 

 to the sub-family Cryptorrhynchinae and proves to be an undescribed species 

 of the genus Palaeopus, Fst. (Stett. Ent. Zeit, 1896, p. 51 & 60). 



Palaeopus costicollis, sp. nov. 



cJ?. Colour uniform dull black, clothed with erect stiff scale-like setae, which 

 are dark brown on the prothorax (paler along the extreme front margin) and dark 

 or light brown (irregularly intermingled) on the elytra ; unevenly scattered on the 

 latter are also a few elongate recumbent whitish scales, and there is a spot in the 

 middle of the base of the prothorax formed of similar scales. 



Fig. 1. Palaeopus costicollis, 

 Marshall, sp. n., $. 



Head regularly convex above the eyes and without any anterior depression, very 

 finely aciculate throughout and with a few scattered and very shallow punctures. 

 Rostrum rather densely clothed at the base with short erect light brown setae ; in 

 the (J, opaque and distinctly tricarinate to beyond the middle, the apical third more 

 shiny and closely and coarsely punctate, except along a smooth median line, which 

 bears a short central stria ; in the <j>, the opaque area is confined to the basal third 

 and the carinae are less distinct, while the apical two-thirds is more shiny and rather 

 less coarsely punctate. Antennae testaceous ; the funicle with joint I as long as 



