Proceedings of the United States National Museum SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. Volume 113 1962 Number 3456 THE WEEVIL GENUS SMICRONYX IN AMERICA NORTH OF MEXICO (COLEOPTERA: CURCULIONIDAE) By Donald M. Anderson * Introduction The species of the genus Smicronyx occurring in North America north of Mexico were last revised in 1894 by W. G. Dietz. Since that time the efforts of numerous collectors have brought thousands of specimens of Smicronyx and a great deal of information into various museums. Unfortunately, the revision by Dietz has proved very inadequate either for determining and arranging that material or for use as a basis for more detailed studies of the various species and groups of species with respect to their relationships and limits. He did not designate type specimens for any of the species; the identity of some species was not clear because the types were not studied; and no information on the biology was provided. Moreover, a number of scattered papers containing descriptions of new species or information on described species have been published since Dietz's revision. The purpose of the present study is to correct and complete the work of the past, to assemble the more recent published information, 1 This paper is based on a thesis submitted in 1958 to the Graduate School of Cornell University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The preparation of the manuscript was aided by a State University of New York Summer Research Fellowship. 185 186 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM Vol. 113 and reappraise, in a preliminary way, the arrangement and delimita- tions of the species and higher groups within the genus as it occurs in North America north of Mexico. This work should prepare the way for the solution of the more involved problems involving the status and natural relationships of the species and groups of species. Some of the problems which originally confronted the writer could not be solved on the basis of the material studied, and a number of new problems were brought to light. These are mentioned in the text. Many of them can be solved only by study of additional material and of living weevils in their natural habitats. MATERIALS AND METHODS Materials examined: Most of the specimens used in this study were borrowed from the collections of several institutions and of a few private collectors. Approximately one hundred specimens were collected by the author. The abbreviations used to indicate the collections to which the material belongs are : AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, New York City; CAS, California Academy of Sciences, San Fran- cisco; CM, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh; CNHM, Chicago Natural History Museum; CNC, Canadian National Collections, Ottawa; CU, Cornell University Dept. of Entomology, Ithaca; DMA, col- lection of the author; ELS, collection of Elbert L. Sleeper, Long Beach State College, Long Beach, California; MCZ, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge; and USNM. United States National Museum. Measurements: All measurements were made with an ocular micrometer in a binocular microscope. Body length was measured from the apices of the elytra to the front of the head between the eyes. The width of the elytra at the base was measured across the humeri at their widest point. The length of the prothorax was measured dorsally from the middle of the base to the middle of the apical margin. The width of the prothorax was measured at whatever was the widest point on the prothorax. The length of the rostrum was measured from the basal groove to the apex above the mandibles. The rest of the measurements do not appear to require further explanation. Drawings: Figures 1-157 on pp. 217-239 were made through use of either a Bausch and Lomb VH microprojector or a combination of an ocular grid in a binocular microscope and squared paper. Statistics: The standard deviations (s), which have been given for the measurements of some species, were calculated by the machine method given by Snedecor (1956, pp. 55, 56). The procedure followed in determining the statistical significance of the difference in measure- SMICRONYX WEEVILS—ANDERSON 187 Hients between certain species is that of Snedecor (1956, pp. 244-245, 250) whose test criterion, or F value, is based on the ratio. mean square of sample means # mean square of individuals TERMINOLOGY The definitions of most of the terms used in this study are found in the glossary published by Torre-Bueno (1937). However, the terms used in reference to genitalia are those used by Bissel (1937) and by Bruhn (1947). The terms used in discussions of geographic distri- butions are those used by A. K. Lobeck in his "Physiographic Prov- inces of North America" (1948), published by Columbia University. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my thanks to Dr. J. G. Franclemont of Cornell University, under whose guidance this work was carried out, for his advice concerning the manuscript and for his help in many other ways. Dr. R. T. Clausen and Dr. C. E. Palm, of the same institution, were also very helpful in reading and criticizing the manuscript. Thanks are also due the following entomologists for their coopera- tion in connection with the loan of material and, to some of them, for the courtesies extended to me during my visits to the collections under their care: Dr. Henry Dietrich, Cornell University; Dr. W. H. Anderson and Miss R. E. Warner, U.S. Department of Agriculture, at the U.S. National Museum; Dr. G. E. Wallace, Carnegie Museum; Mr. H. B. Leech, California Academy of Sciences; Dr. W. J. Brown and Dr. H. F. Howden, Science Service, Ottawa; Mr. Henry Dybas, Chicago Natural History Museum; Dr. M. A. Cazier and Mrs. Patricia Vaurie, American Museum of Natural History; Dr. F. S. Truxal, Los Angeles County Museum; Dr. P. J. Darlington, Jr., and Dr. W. L. Brown, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard Uni- versity; Dr. Harold Grant, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadel- phia; Dr. Rene Malaise, Naturhistoriska Riksmuseum, Stockholm; Dr. Leland Chandler and Dr. J. V. Osmun, Purdue University; Dr. S. W. Frost, Penn State University; Dr. Barry D. Valentine, Ohio State University; Dr. Elbert L. Sleeper, Long Beach State College. I am indebted to my mother, Mrs. J. K. Anderson, for her services in typing portions of the first draft of the manuscript, and to Miss Frances Ann McKittrick for her aid with the illustrations. HISTORY The nomenclatorial history of the genus Smicronyx began in 1836 when Schoenherr proposed the name Micronyx for a group of seven 188 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM Vol. 113 species and named Micronyx reichi Gyllenhal as the type of the genus. Two of the included species had been described in Curculio, and one had been described in Elleschus. The rest of the species, including reichi, had not been previously described. However, the name Micronyx was preoccupied because it had been published by Boisduval (in D'urville, 1835) as a name for a genus of scarabaeid beetles, and in 1843 Schoenherr replaced his Micronyx with the name Smicronyx. Smicronyx reichi then became ipso facto the type of the genus. The first synthetic work on the North American species of Smi- cronyx was published by LeConte in 1876. He placed a number of species, which had been incorrectly placed in other genera, in Smi- cronyx and erected the genus Desmoris, which included two species considered near Smicronyx. In addition, LeConte placed two species, later recognized as Smicronyx, in the genus Pachytychius Jekel. In 1892 Casey published a revision of the North American species of Smicronyx, in which he placed all of the genus Desmoris and both North American species of Pachytychius in Smicronyx, and in which he described 19 species as new. Dietz (1894) published a revision of the North American species of the subtribe Desmori (now the subtribe Smicronychi), in which he recognized the genus Desmoris and erected two new genera, Pachy- phanes and Synertha, for certain elements of Smicronyx. In this re- vision, Dietz also erected the subgenus Pseudosmicronyx and described a total of 48 new species in Smicronyx, Desmoris, Pachyphanes, and Synertha. Champion (1902) described six species from Central America and Mexico. In the same work he synonymized the genera Desmoris, Pachyphanes, and Synertha with Smicronyx, but did not give his reasons for doing so. Blatchley and Leng (1916) retained Desmoris and Pachyphanes, primarily to "serve the purpose in lessening the difficulties of handling a very unwieldy group." For reasons given in other sections, the present writer includes in Smicronyx all the forms formerly placed in the genera Desmoris, Pachyphanes, and Synertha. By the time of publication of Leng's "Catalog of the Coleoptera of North America North of Mexico" (1920), there were 91 specific names proposed for forms of Smicronyx in America north of Mexico and since that time a total of 8 additional specific names have been proposed by Blatchley (1920, 1922, 1928), Pierce (1939), Buchanan (1941), and Sleeper (1955). European workers have erected two subgenera, which include certain Old World species. In 1896 Desbrochers des Loges erected the subgenus Chalybodontus , which included a few species occurring in SMICRONYX WEEVILS—ANDERSON 189 southern Europe and North Africa. Hustache (1935) erected the subgenus Afrosmicronyx for a single species found in the French Sudan of Africa. SYSTEMATIC POSITION A detailed consideration of the proper position of the genus Smi- cronyx in a natural classification of the family Curculionidae is beyond the scope of this study, but a brief consideration of its present position is undertaken in the following paragraphs. Smicronyx and a few other genera of the tribe Erirhinini (Sharpia Tournefort, Topelatus Hustache, Hedychrous Marshall, and Promeco- tarsus Casey) have been associated as the subtribe Smicronychi of some American authors (as in Blatchley and Leng, 1916) or the tribe Smi- cronychini of other authors (as in Junk's "Coleopterorum Catalogus").