Report of the State Entomologist 263 



the well-known Pea-bug, or Pea-weevil, as it might better be called — 

 the Bruchus Pisi of Linnsens — the beans being perforated with large 

 round holes, similar to those in the pea, where the insect has escaped, 

 or presenting a discolored spot, under which is a round cavity, in 

 which the creature is still lying ; the only important difference being, 

 that as the bean is a much larger fruit, several holes, usually as many 

 as six and sometimes twelve, are bored in it, instead of the single hole 

 which we see in peas. 



And on inspecting this insect, I find it to be a weevil so similar in 

 its general appearance to that of the pea, that persons who have not 

 made this class of animals a special study, would probably infer it to 

 be the very same insect, somewhat modified in consequence of its 

 being reared upon slightly different food. But on a close inspection, 

 it will be found to differ essentially from that insect, in many points 

 of its structure and colors. 



From the examination I am at present able to make, I do not recog- 

 nize this as a species that has been heretofore described. I infer it 

 has but recently been noticed in your vicinity, and it would hence 

 appear to have been introduced, probably, from some foreign country. 

 It, however, is unlike the Bruchus rufimanus and granarius, common 

 insects in Southern Europe, which prey upon beans in this same man- 

 ner. In addition to these, I see a Brazilian species has been named 

 B. iPhaseoli by M. Chevrolat, a name implying it to subsist on the 

 bean; but I have not the work of this author at hand. Upon a kind 

 of wild bean growing in Indiana, Mr. Say -met with a beetle which he 

 names B. obscurus, which appears to approach nearer to this insect 

 than does any other species to which I can refer. 



Under the circumstances, the best service I can render, will be, to 

 present a name for this insect, with such a description of it as will 

 serve to plainly distinguish it, and thus open the way for future 

 researches to determine whether it really is a species which has lurked 

 unnoticed in the world until the present time. 



I would therefore name it the Bean- weevil — Bruchus Fahoe. It is 

 slightly smaller than our Pea-weevil, its length being from 13 to 

 15-lOOths of an inch. It is of a black color, more or less densely coated 

 over with tarnished yellowish gray pubescence, and is particularly dis- 

 tinguished from other species by having the four first and last joints 

 of its antennae, and all its legs, of a rusty or pale dull yellowish color, 

 with only the under side of the hind thighs black. Along the middle 

 of its thorax is a faint whitish stripe, which has ^n impressed line at 

 its hind end. Its wing-covers have impressed lines or striae, the inter- 

 stices between which are alternately of a faint whitish color, this color 

 being most clear and distinct a^long the middle of the third interstice 

 between two iaint blackish spots, which are placed on this interstice, 

 a few other blackish spots being also perceptible here and there, out- 

 side of this. The abdomen or hind body is pale dull yellow, with a 

 black band on the fore-part of each joint, and its flattened tip, beyond 

 the ends of the wing-covers, is obscure grayish, with a faint whitish 

 stripe along its middle. On the under side of the hind thighs, near 

 their end, is a little projecting spine, like the point of a thorn, with a 

 similar very minute one at its hind base, followed by a more minute, 

 blunt-pointed one. 



