Handbook of the Bruchidae of the United States and Canada

By John M. Kingsolver

Bruchidae are found on every major land mass except Antarctica and New Zealand. Eggs are usually laid on the seed or fruit of a plant suitable for development of the larva. Immature stages are spent inside seeds that have been excavated by larval feeding. Adults live free and feed on pollen and nectar. Approximately 84% of the known hosts of Bruchidae are in the plant family Leguminosae. The remaining hosts are scattered among 31 other families. Sixteen plant families support larval feeding in the United States and Canada. Several species of Bruchidae, especially those with a cosmopolitan distribution, are notorious pests of stored leguminous seeds. This publication contains distinguishing characteristics and diagnostic keys for the 5 subfamilies, 24 genera, and 156 species of the seed beetle family Bruchidae of the United States (including Hawaii) and Canada. Associated data for each species description include a history of the name, synonymical names, type specimen information, geographical distribution, and host plants and parasitoids. Appendices consist of species, host, fossil, and parasitoid lists, as well as a glossary of terms and a bibliography. This is part of a series of studies of bruchid genera contributing to a comprehensive database for this important seed-feeding beetle family in the Western Hemisphere. It provides the means to identify these insects for taxonomists, students, museum curators, biodiversity workers, port identifiers, and ecologists conducting studies in rangeland, pasture, and forest management in the United States and Canada. Black and white, 2 volumes, 536 pages.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin 1912
 
November 2004

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Note: The Acrobat pdf version of this publication, though identical in content to the print version, differs slightly in format from the print version.  Also, in volume 2 the items on the errata list for the print version have been corrected.

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