beetle, such a- I h.- li.dians and 



the Dutch both call tlio Mother of the palm worm" .(p. 48). 



The insect having become known at this early date, was figured in 

 many of the early works on entomology down to the present century, 

 and received from Linnaeus the scientific name of Curculio pfdntotwm- 

 >ologists, and the 



by Fabricins Ca/awlra palmar urn ; both names are common and used 

 to denote the same insect, but the former is now definitely established and 

 accepted. Other generic names proposed for it have never come into 



The early entomologists worked out the position of the insect in 

 n, but added nothing to Mdlle. ."Uerian'- account, upon which 

 they were content to draw. The fact of the grub or gru-t/rn worm 

 being eaten by the natives and even by Europeans proved of more 

 interest than its n ri is] ibits. tin i« l'irrlo mpoi nice, and certain 

 ingenious statements were made, with an apparent disrespect for 

 ■how that it was the Cossus of Pliny and the Soman 

 epicures. Many authors (1, 3, 6, 9, 11), among whom are Kirov and 

 Spence, and Schomburgk, speak of the grub being served as a delieacy. 

 and it is obtainable by epicures of the present day at some of the West 

 Indian hotels particularly in Martinique. This interesting fact need 

 not be further dwelt upon, for it is improbable that there will be a suffi- 

 cient demand for this dainty to counterbalance the insect's capacity 

 for deslruetivcncss: but it' it should become popular as an article of 

 food in Honduras, a cert- - will be forthcoming to 



the work of searching i^v and destn ing, the grubs. 



In 1828, the Rev. Lansdown Guilding, in a valuable but rarely 

 consulted paper (3), described briefiy the injuries winch this weevil 

 inflicts upon sugar-ennc. as did Sir IJobert Se.homhurgk in his book on 

 Barbados (11) published in 1847. 



From that date, and owing to the increased importance of tropical 

 agriculture in modern times, scattered references to it as an injurious 

 inject are to be found in different works, but the only detail 

 of its habits appears to be that presented to the Government of British 

 Honduras in 1880, in the Report of Messrs. Phillips Bellamy and Dr. 

 Gabb (26). In 1880, Miss Ormerod gave particulars of its attacks 

 on sugar-cane in British Guiana (19). There are some valuable notes 

 on it in Insect Lift; U. S. Department of Agriculture, contributed by 

 Mr. J. B. Hickey and the editors (32) ; and information is given in the 

 same journal (25), and b\ Mr. S. V. Summer* the Ca a 1 /. / »- 

 I'Hjkt (13). on a eloselv-allicd species, the Palmetto Weevil. lih i/u, ho- 

 phorus rruenfatus, Fabr. ( = Zim,, . • of Florida 



and the Southern States of North America. 



particulars given in conversation with the writer by 



Belize. These have been most valuable in several 



Besides the American Palm Weevil, there is : 





