Report of the State Entomologist 287 



'* Baudi, the best and the most recent writer on the genus, places 

 lentis in the division with denticulate sides to the thorax, c. f . Deutsche 

 Ent. Zeit.y vol. xxx, specimens so named by Kraatz when he worked out the 

 genus and others named by Schaum, Wolliston, etc., have the denticle." 



Description. 

 Perhaps the best published description of B. lentis is that given by 

 F. Baudi (above quoted) in his recent Monograph of the Bruchidte. As 

 the work in which it is published is inaccessible to most students, and 

 the original might not be of service to all if attainable, Dr. Hamilton 

 has kindly supplied the following translation from the Latin, con- 

 tained in Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift, xxx, 1886, Heft ii, p. 395. 



Bruchus lentis Boh. 



Conspectus.— ThoTSix with a tooth on each side, behind which it is more or less 

 emarginate * * * Posterior femora armed with a more or less strong tooth before 

 the apex * * * Thorax armed at the middle with an inconspicuous tooth * ♦ * 

 Anterior feet testaceous.simple in both sexes; * * * Anterior feet of the male 

 nearly always testaceous ; of the female with the femora black at base * * * The 

 intermediate feet black, with the tibiae and tarsi rufous. 



Description.— Ohlons-OY&te, black, with grayi&h-brown or ochraceous pubescence; 

 thorax nearly truncate at apex, ob&oletely dentate on each side at middle and scarcely 

 emarginate behind the tooth; elytra ornamented with longitudinal, narrow, whitish 

 lines.alternating with brownish spots often confusedly,"there being larger brownish spots 

 near the base on the thorax, and also on the base of the elytra ; pygidium pubescent 

 with cinereous or fulvescence, broadly infuscate on each side near apex, and occasionally 

 almost uniformly f ulvo-pubescent ; three white spots at base, or rarely wholly griseo- 

 pubescent ; antennae nearly as long as the head and thorax, suddenly thickened after the 

 third joint and more gradually so to apex, black, first five joints rufo-testHceous; the 

 anterior feet are rufo-testaceous, the femora in the female are freguently infuscate at 

 base, the middle have the femora black, occasionally rufous at the knees, tibiae and tarsi 

 rufo-testaceous ; the posterior femora armed with a medium sized acute tooth. 



Male — Middle tibias slightly arcnate, armed at the apex with a very fine black spine ; 

 the fifth ventral segment perceptibly emarginate at the middle of the hind border. 



Hob. Central and Southern Europe, Syria; Italy, most freciuently in lentils. Varies 

 by both sexes having rarely the femora of the anterior feet black or piceous. Southern 

 France. 



Its Economic Importance. 



Having received this insect only from Buffalo, N. Y., we do not 

 know of its having become established in tho, United States. Its 

 economic importance, however, could not be of particular moment, as 

 lentils are not grown to any great extent in this country, but are in 

 the main imported by a half-dozen or more large wholesale dealers in 

 New York city. From one of these an Albany house procures its 

 supply for the Albany market, which usually amounts to about fifty 

 bags annually, of one hundred and fifty pounds each.* Their sale is 

 limited to the German population, who use it prepared as a soup and 

 also as a vegetable eaten with vinegar. 



According to Mr. Daniel Batchelor, of Utica, N. Y., lentils are rarely 

 grown in England as the climate is too moist for the seed to mature 



* This dealer informs me that when his stock has been kept over the winter, it is often 

 pierced with small holes by a worm, which, from his description, should be the lentil 

 weevil. 



