68 



September 5, 1902, Mr. Shelfer called at this office and furnished 

 the writer with some additional information on the insect's occurrence 

 and life history. Tobacco was first set out April 8, and the beetles 

 were observed at work the following day, as a rule in pairs, attacking 

 the leaves, which soon after attack began to droop. After the mid- 

 ribs had been eaten for some time the leaves curled over, and under 

 this protection the beetles congregated for feeding. The beetles, as 

 well as larvae, were still in the field the first week in September. 



descriptive . 



The tobacco-destroying species of weevil, Triehobaris mucorea Lee. 

 maj T be readily separated from the potato species, T. trinotata Say, by 

 its much larger size. The former will average one-fourth of an inch 

 or a little longer (5-6 mm ), while the latter does not exceed three- 

 sixteenths of an inch, averaging about one-sixth inch or a little smaller 

 (3-4. 5 ,nm ). The tobacco species is, moreover, a little more robust and 

 of more uniform size, and is distinguished, according to Casey, "by 

 its rather depressed upper surface and the subdentate area at the 

 sides of the prothorax beneath." Also by the "pronotum densely 

 and continently punctate, sometimes longitudinally rugose, the sides 

 more or less feebly sinuate just behind apical third; antennal club 

 more slender and elongate, less abrupt, the outer funicular joints 

 more transverse; pronotum with a narrow impunctate median carina." 



In T. trinotata the pronotum is simply punctate and without an 

 impunctate and subcarinate median line, as in mucorea, and the anten- 

 na! club is robust and abrupt. In a large series of specimens, such as 

 the writer has at the present writing, it is seen that there is also a 

 difference in color. All of the specimens of trinotata are darker, the 

 pubescence being darker gray than in mucorea. There is no observa- 

 ble difference in specimens collected in the field and those taken from 

 the stalks of eggplant the first week of September. In hibernated 

 individuals of mucorea the scales are very pale, nearly white, while in 

 those which have recently issued from stalks the}^ are dull, some- 

 what 3 r ellowish brown/' In all specimens of mucorea there is an api- 

 cal line of yellowish pubescence on the thorax, forming a collar above 

 the head. This collar is scarcely at all indicated in trinotata, and the 

 color of the scales here are of the same uniform gray as of the entire 

 upper surface. 



INJURY IN FLORIDA BY A RELATED SPECIES. 



July 14, 1902, Mr. William M. Cony, Quincy, Fla., wrote, in response 

 to inquiry, that at various times in previous } r ears — though not in 



« This difference in coloration has been noted in another species of scale-covered 

 weevil, Ceutorhynchus rapse Say, Bui. 23, n. s., p. 43. 



