38 . 



I will communicate to the society several individuals of both sexes of a Ourculionid 

 belonging to the genus Spermophagus which destroys haricots, coming from La 

 Plata, and which I owe to the extreme kindness of our colleague, M. Allard. On 

 studying the legumes attacked by these insects it is remarked that a single haricot often 

 nourishes seven and even eight individuals of the Spermophagus. The larva feeds on 

 the germinative part of the bean, makes in it larger and smaller galleries, and trans- 

 forms finally into nymph. When the haricots containing these Spermophagus are 

 examined nothing on the exterior reveals the presence of the Curculionids ; the nymph 

 changes into the perfect insect, and the latter, in order to issue from the cell in which it 

 has undergone its various transformations, cuts the pericarp of the bean, making with 

 its mandibles a piece more or less circular, which falls, and the perfect insect issues 

 very actively from its cell to go in search of the female. It is to be remarked that 

 often the same bean serves as the cradle of several individuals of both sexes. The 

 learned Schoenherr is the first who has made known this species, to which he has 

 given the name Spermophagus semifasciatus, Genera et Spec. Curcul. torn. I, partie 

 I er , p. iii, Xo. 12; but he knew only the female and did not add to his careful 

 description the life habits of this pretty little species. 



The male is smaller than the female, for it is only about 1.75 to 2 mm. in length. 

 It is entirely gray, more or less variable (" chatoyant") , tending a little to reddish, 

 and the elytra are traversed by stria?, showing a punctuation fine and not very close; 

 the legs and all the body beneath are of a clear ashy gray. The antenna? are gray 

 with their first joints reddish. (Annales de la Soc. Entom. de France, 1858, bul., 

 p. xxviii.) 



When it is added that this bean weevil evidently lives for successive 

 generations on stored beans and cowpeas in the same manner a&Bruehus 



obtecttis, the common bean weevil, and 

 that it is known to inhabit Guatemala, 

 Nicaragua, and Panama, besides Mexico, 

 Peru, and Brazil, we sum up about all 

 that is known concerning it. 



For the further identification of the 

 species, the illustration of the female 

 and of an infested seed, with eo-o-s and 



Fig. 10.— ^prrmojjhagus pectorahs: weevil =>» 



at right, much enlarged; Mexican bean exit holes, is reproduced: 



at left, showing : below, holes made by Th „ deposited ill PTeat lium- 



beetle in egress, above, a group of eggs iue ^fe^ 5 tlie ut pufciLCU 1U gicat uulll 



on surface, three times natural size (au- bers on the beans recently received. 



thor's illustration). f rQm 5Q t() 10Q Qu ^^ The eggS. when 



dry, are light gray in color, nearly circular in outline, about half a 

 millimeter in diameter, and less than half that in depth. 



It seems quite likely that this insect has already obtained a foothold 

 in our new possessions, where it will in time become quite as destruc- 

 tive as in the other countries where known to be established, and it 

 is almost equally probable that it will spread, with the increase of our 

 commerce with those countries, to the Southern States. 



It has confidently been hoped that an opportunity would offer for 

 the further study of the Mexican bean weevil, but since the taking by 

 the writer of living material at Chicago, during the Exposition held 

 there in 1893. no live individuals have been obtained. 



