189 
No. 151.] 
country. The specific name Noveboracensis, given to it by Fors¬ 
ter, commemorates the place whence it came, and, having priori¬ 
ty in point of time over other names subsequently given to the 
same species, must Be retained. Gmelin, in 1788, and Olivier, 
in 1790, redescribed it under the same name.* It is the Ryn- 
chites curculionoides, of Herbst, who figured and described it in 
1797, from specimens in a museum, rich in North American in¬ 
sects, belonging to Mr. Herschel, the court musician at Hanover, 
in Germany, a near relative of Sir William Herschel, the astrono¬ 
mer. In 1833, the Chevalier Schonherr, the author of an exten¬ 
sive work on the weevil tribe, gave it the name of Ithycerus cur¬ 
culionoidest, unfortunately adopting the specific appellation be¬ 
stowed upon it by Herbst, rather than the earlier one of Forster. 
Lastly, in 1837, Mr. Kirby, apparently not aware that the insect 
had already been made known, described it under the new name 
of Pachyrhynckus Schonherri, which must give place, as a syno¬ 
nym, to Ithycerus Jfoveboracensis. 
By Monday’s mail, I propose sending to you the Cambridge 
Chronicle of this date. You will find therein an account of the 
Palmer worm of New-England, which has lately done much dam¬ 
age to orchards in various parts of the country. I hear of it 
throughout the valley of the Connecticut, and nearly to the White 
mountains of New-Hampshire. It also prevails in the valley of 
the Housatonic, and as stated by my friend, Dr. Plumb, of Salis¬ 
bury, and by Dr. Fitch, to a considerable extent in the valley of 
the Hudson. Should we have a second visitation of the insect 
during the present summer, orchards must suffer severely from its 
ravages. From the scientific name and description, which is 
given in the Chronicle, of the moth produced from it, you will 
peroeive that the latter is a very different insect from the two 
moths described by Dr. Fitch. 
Respectfully, your friend and serv’t, 
THADDEUS WILLIAM HARRIS. 
• In 1781, the Danish Naturalist, Fabricius, having met with a specimen from Newfound., 
land, in the collection of Sir Joseph Banks, described it under the name of Curculio puncta- 
tulus. 
