NOTE ON TRIGONOGENIUS FARCTUS

Extract

Thirty years ago Dr. Leconte described (New Species, Smithson Misc. Coll., 167, p. 100) the Ptinid Trigonogenius farctus from specimens received from San Francisco, Cala. Most specimens in our cabinets come from the same locality, but I have seen others from Alameda and Los Gatos, Cala. The collectors of the specimens never published anything on its mode of occurrence, and I fail to find in the literature a single record of its habits. Quite recently, however, Dr. James Fletcher, while on a visit to Washington, D. C., showed me two species of Coleoptera found living in red pepper, in Victoria, Br. Col. One is Tribolium ferrugineum, a common cosmopolitan Tenebrionid, which has been found before under similar conditions; but the second species proves to be Trigonogenius farctus. Several specimens of this were obtained, thus showing that its occurrence in the pepper was not accidental, and I have no doubt that upon further research the earlier stages of the beetle can also be found in the pepper.