NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF THE WEEVILS OF THE OTIORHYNCHID GENUS MESAGROICUS By L. L. Buchanan, Of the United States Biological Siirvey Up to the present time the weevil genus Mesagroicus has been recorded only from the palaearctic regions, where a total of about 20 species are known. The single hitherto described American species is Tierricki Pierce, for which its author proposed the unnecessary generic name Lepidocricus — lierricki being closely related to a rather common European species, Mesagroicus ohscurus Boheman.^ Pierce's descrip-tion of Lepidocricus Tierricki, together with two or three subsequent references to it, comprise the entire American literature on the group. It was of especial interest, therefore, to find among some undeter-mined material in the United States National Museum collection a considerable number of North American specimens belonging to Mesagroicus. These specimens represent several well-marked species, widely distributed over the United States, and doubtless present, in greater or less numbers, in every large beetle collection of the country. Under the circumstances, it seemed worth while to undertake a re vi-sional study of all our native species, in order that a widespread but almost wholly neglected element of the North American weevil fauna may be more generally recognized. The material examined is largely from the collection of the United States National Museum, supplemented by a number of specimens received from other sources. The writer is indebted in particular to H. F. Wickham and E. T. Cresson, jr., for the loan of material, and to Mary Foley Benson, of the Bureau of Entomology, for the care-fully prepared and characteristic drawings of herricM and elongatus. Types of the species here described as new are deposited, one in the Philadelphia Academy, the remainder (eight) in the National Museum. Genus MESAGROICUS Schonherr Mesagroicus Schonherr, Gen. et Sp. Curculionidum, vol. 6, part 1, 1840, p. 281 (Genotype, Thylacites piliferus Boheman as designated by Schonherr). — Lacordaire, Gen. Col., vol. 6, 1863, p. 72. — Jacquelin du Val, Gen. des Col. 'Twelve exotic species of Mesagroicus have been examined; two or three of them show a striking super-ficial resemblance to some of the American species, but no case of actual identity was observed. No. 2801— Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 76, Art. 4 41437—29 1
BioStor
