Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Systematic Entomology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #344441
Research Project: Beetle Taxonomy and Systematics Supporting U.S. Agriculture, Arboriculture and Biological Control

Location: Systematic Entomology Laboratory

Title: Illustrated key to Curculio L. of North America east of the Mississippi River (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Author
item WHITEHEAD, D. - Non ARS Employee
item Chamorro, Maria
item ANDERSON, ROBERT - Canadian Forest Service

Submitted to: Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/13/2017
Publication Date: 6/13/2018
Citation: Whitehead, D.R., Chamorro, M.L., Anderson, R.S. 2018. Illustrated key to Curculio L. of North America east of the Mississippi River (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 120(3):616-641.

Interpretive Summary: In North America east of the Mississippi River, the genus Curculio includes 11 species that develop in acorns of various oaks, plus 4 other species that are of economic importance: the pecan weevil, the hazelnut weevil and the greater and lesser chestnut weevils. Whether because they are spectacular, abundant, or suspected to be causing economic loss, specimens of these weevils are frequently submitted for identification. Unfortunately, although the genus is easily recognized, adults are very difficult to identify to species because of extreme structural variation. This paper is intended to facilitate unequivocal identifications.

Technical Abstract: Despite a taxonomic revision by Gibson (1969), North American weevils of the economically important genus Curculio remain poorly characterized and difficult to distinguish. Given herein is an illustrated key to the 15 species found east of the Mississippi River, including the putatively extinct Curculio caryatrypes (Boheman) or Greater Chestnut Weevil. This is necessarily a complex key using multiple characteristics, designed to minimize or eliminate difficulties in identification posed by extremes in structural variation in both males and females. Curculio ordinatus (Casey), new synonymy is transferred from synonymy under C. nasicus (Say) to synonymy under C. strictus (Casey).