DESCKIPTIOXS OF WEEVILS ON COTTOX IN PERU. 11 



Menetypus variegatus, new species. 



(PL II, fig. 2.) 



Described from six specimens from Pim\a, Peru, collected by 

 Mr. C. H. T. Townsend and transmitted under his note number 

 22009 bearing the following data: ''This comes numerously from 

 cotton squares here, and I think breeds in them. I have often 

 foimd it m the squares in the field." 



Length, 3-3^ mm.; breadth, 1-1.25 mm. 



Color of integument reddish piceous, darker above; antennae yellowish brown; legs, 

 especially tibiae, darker yellowish brown. Body densely covered with thin, yellowish- 

 gray, polygonal pavement scales, mottled in spots with white and brown scales. 

 Elytra with dark lunule at middle inclosing a small wliite spot and with dark diagonal 

 Lines meeting suture at decliNitj-. Head a little longer than beak, smooth, densely 

 squamose, sparsely minutely setose; median groove on beak very indistinct; nasal 

 plate triangular, sharply defined by a raised line notched at apex of beak; apex of 

 beak clad with long setae above and below; genas emaxginate; scrobes sharply defined, 

 arcuate, descending to lower margin of beak beneath eyes ; sides of beak perpendicular, 

 concealing scrobes; eyes stronglj' convex, diagonally truncate beneath and behind. 

 Anteimal scape slender, clavate, reaching beyond middle of eye; funicle 7-jointed, 

 the first longest, clavate, second about one-half as long, but longer than any of the 

 following joints, which are moniliform, seventh broader than any preceding except 

 the first; club elongate, first joint pedunculate at base, fourth joint small. Prothorax 

 truncate at base and apex, slightly constricted at sides near base and apex; sides 

 convex, widest before middle; surface slightly convex, densely squamose, sparsely 

 setose, vestiture mottled gray to black, with pale lateral Adttse. Ocular -vibrissae 

 long and curved . Scutellum minute, triangular. Eh-tra convex, mth strong humeri ; 

 striae distinct, punctures setigerous; vestiture densely squamose; intervals convex, 

 each with a single row of setse, sutural interval elevated at decli\dt>-, fourth to eighth 

 LDterA'als elevated to form tumiaity at apical declivity; sides subparallel in male, 

 inflated beyond middle in female. Anterior coxae large, globose, narrowly separated; 

 trochanters distinct, Aisible from beneath; femora very large, globosely inflated- in 

 male, less inflated in female; tibiae mucronate, very elongate, slightly arcuate and 

 denticulate within; tarsi long. Median coxae narrowly separated; femora normal; 

 tibiae mutic. Posterior coxae widely separated; femora normal; tibiae mutic, with 

 oblique cotyloid surface, corbels apical. First abdominal segment with broad, 

 rounded intercoxal process; first suture arcuate, second segment longer than first or 

 than third and fourth together; fifth segment roundingly emarginate at apex in male, 

 convex and longer in female. Undersides densely squamose, finely pubescent. 



T\'pe.— Cat. Xo. 18449, U.S. National Museum. 



This species differs from the type species, Twdromeroides Kirsch of 

 Colombia, by its smaller size and the color of its vestiture. 



Nothing is known of the habits of the gejius Menetypus^ but of its 

 nearest allies in the genus Pandeleteius , one species breeds in twigs 

 of mistletoe and another in bark of trees. The weevil may quite 

 possibly breed in the stems of the cotton, but it is a little doubtful 

 whether it breeds in the squares. It undoubtedly seeks the nectar' 

 of the squares at least. 



