THE PLUM CURCULIO 
CLASSIFICATION AND SYNONYMY. 
The Rhynchophora, or snout beetles, to which suborder the plum 
curculio belongs, constitute a very large and important group of 
coleopterous insects, comprising some of our worst insect pests, as 
the cotton-boll weevil, grain and rice weevils, nut weevils, plum 
gouger, strawberry weevil, etc. 
The genus Conotrachelus is distinctly American. Le Conte and 
Horn, in the Rhynchophora of North America, published in 1876, 
list for this genus 26 species from America north of Mexico. There 
are, however, many representatives of the genus, the species being 
especially abundant in the Tropics. Champion, in Volume IV, part 4, 
of the Coleoptera of the Biologia Centrali Americana, has listed 188 
species, and states that about 200 have been described (1906). 
The plum curculio was first characterized and named in 1797 by 
Hcrbst in his "Natursystem aller bekannten in- und auslandischen 
Insekten-Kafer " and figured under the name Curculio nenuphar, 
the original description being as follows: 1 
587. Curculio Nenuphar. 
Zleun unb neun3ta,fte (lafcf. £ig« 8. H. 
Mus. Herschel. Cure, longirostris fusco griseoque variegatus, inaequalis, thorace 
punctis duobus elevatis nigris, elytris lineis elevatis interruptis, dorso gibber cari- 
natus. 
Per Kdfer ift obna.efaf)r britteijafb £inicn [ana, braun unb gteiSfdjecftg, bio (Dberjttidp 
fctjr uneben. Per Rfiffel ift faft fanner, aI3 bet oruftfdjifb, ^iemftdj bttf, nmb, a.efriimmt 
braun unb gretefdjecfig, am <Enbe fdjtuar^, auf bom Hficfen cine feine ernoliete £tnie. Pic 
1 From the collection Herschel. A long-snouted curculio, varied with brown and gray, unequal; thorax 
with two elevated black punctures, the elytra with elevated, interrupted lines; the back gibbons and 
carinate. 
The beetle is about 3J lines long, varied with brown and gray, the surface very uneven. The beak is 
almost longer than the thorax, moderately thick, round, curved, varied with brown and gray, black at 
tip, on the upper side with a fine elevated line. The eyes are black and are not prominent ; the antenna 
are brown. The thorax is varied with brown and gray, on the dorsal surface a very fine, elevated line, 
on each side of which is anteriorly a large, elevated black dot , and a smaller one posteriorly; these smaller 
ones a little closer to the median line. The scutellum is dep re ss e d. The elytra are varied with brown and 
gray and possess elevated and always interrupted lines; some of these are more elevated, others less. 
one at the middle near the suture is much more strongly elevated than the others and forms a large, black. 
elevated, acutely cariniform tubercle; more toward the tip but also near the suture is again a strongly 
elevated, abrupt line, the second in size but not equal to that on the dorsum. The legs are also varied 
with brown and gray, the COXFB are two-toothed. 
The home is North America. 
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