44 



DETERMINATION OF THE SPECIES. 



Specimens of the pepper weevil were submitted to Mr. Schwarz, 

 who reports as follows: 



It is a species of Anthonomus hitherto not recorded from the United States, 

 and is no doubt A. ceneotinctus, described by Mr. G. C. Champioli in the Biologia 

 Centrali-Americana.a The few specimens found at San Antonio in November by- 

 Mr. Wallver and myself on pepper plants agree perfectly with Champion's 

 description. However, all the numerous specimens bred by Mr. Walker from 

 pepper plants at Boerne, Tex., uniformly differ in having the legs throughout of 

 a briglit orange-yellow color, whereas in the more typical specimens the thighs 

 are dark except at base. The difference, striking as it is, is most probably due 

 to the immature condition of the Boerne specimens and the mature condition of 



the types. The pepper weevil, which is often con- 

 founded by farmers with the cotton-boll weevil, is 

 much smaller and much shorter than the smallest 

 specimens of the cotton-boll weevil. The legs are 

 much shorter ; the elytra are more convex and much 

 less elongate than in the cotton-boll weevil ; and. 

 more especially, the front legs do not have a double 

 tooth as in the boll weevil, but are furnished with 

 a- single, not very conspicuous tooth. 



DISTRIBUTION AND DESTRUCTIVENESS. 



Fig. 16. — Anthonomus ceneo- 

 tinctus: weevil, much, en- 

 larged (after Hunter and 

 Hinds). 



According to ^Ir. Louis Lamm, of Boerne, 

 Tex., upon whose farm the insects occurred 

 in large numbers, the weevil had been no- 

 ticed there for t^vo seasons, having been 

 seen for the first time in October, 1903, and 

 again during the summer of 1904, causing a 'loss of more than one- 

 third of the crop each year. At San Antonio, Tex., a number of 

 farms were so seriously infested during the previous season that 

 the growing of sweet peppers as a market crop was discontinued by 

 a number of marlvct gardeners. Reports received at the San Antonio 

 market show that a pepper Aveevil had been common for three or four 

 years in that vicinity; there is not, however, conclusive proof that 

 the insect referred to is identical with the species here considered, 

 since a similar species has been reported on peppers in Texas. There 

 exists an erroneous idea that j)eppers are often infested with the 

 cotton-boll weevil, and it is possible that a confusion of these tw^o 

 species has given rise to some of the reports. According to present • 

 information, this species is not abundant in the State in localities 

 other than those above mentioned. 



Coleoptera, IV, pt. 4, February, 1903, p. 169, PI. X, 



