51 



of cultivated plants of the mustard family C. sulcicollis Gyll. and C. 

 assimilis Payk. , known respectively as the cabbage gall weevil and the 

 turnip weevil, are the most important and receive mention in most 

 economic works published in Europe. They injure alike cabbage, kale, 

 rape, and turnip. 



C. roberti Gyll., according to Rupertsberger (Verhdl. zool.-bot. Ges. 

 Wien, 1887, Vol. XX, pp. 837-839), has similar habits to the cabbage 

 gall weevil attacking Raphanus raphani 'strum and rape. 



The above three species, together with C. cyanipennis 111. and 0. 

 quadridens Panz., which will be shortly mentioned, are included in a 

 consideration of the crucifer-feeding Ceutorhynchus in Taschenberg's 

 Insekten-Kunde (Vol. II, pp. 161-166). 



O. contractus Marsh., the charlock-seed weevil, is recorded to do 

 injury to turnip in England (Curtis's Farm Insects, p. 106). 



C. napi Gyll., like C. rapce, is not mentioned in any European 

 popular economic works consulted, although both Goureau and Tasch- 

 enberg have made reference to injury by it to both cabbage and colza 

 "or summer rape. 



THE SEED-STALK WEEVIL. 



The question of the proper nomenclature, or more strictly speaking 

 identity of the cabbage curculio of North America with the European 

 Ceutorhynchus rapce led to some further study of certain other forms, 

 with the result that a species treated b}^ Mr. F. A. Sirrine (Rept. N. Y. 

 Agr. Expt. Sta. for 1895, p. 603), and identified as undescribed by Dr. 

 Dietz, proves with little doubt to be identical with a European species, 

 C. quadridens Panz. This species was given the name of C. seriesetosus 

 and described on page 422 of the Transactions of the American 

 Entomological Society for 1896. 



The occurrence of this insect in America is evidently of very recent 

 date, the specimens received by Mr. A. Bolter from Nantucket, Mass., 

 appearing to be the first collected, and at the present writing there is 

 no further knowledge of the insect's distribution than that it occurs 

 in the localit}^ mentioned and on Long Island in the vicinity of Cut- 

 chogue. It appears to have been first noticed on Long Island in 1895. 



The exclusive occurrence of this species only on our Atlantic coast, 

 close to our great shipping ports, as well as the fact that thus far it is 

 known to attack only cultivated plants, although searched for on others, 

 led to the suspicion h\ Mr. Schwarz and the writer that it might be a 

 foreign importation and of recent introduction. Mr. Sirrine has 

 kindly sent a series of specimens of C. seriesetosus for examination, and 

 Mr. Schwarz has now ascertained from comparisons with descriptions 

 and European specimens that the species is doubtless identical with the 

 European C. quadridens Panz., a common and widely distributed insect 

 in its Old World home. 



