Robert S. Anderson. 1998. Weevils (Curculionoidea) in Smith, I.M., and G.G.E. Scudder, eds. Assessment of species diversity in the Montane Cordillera Ecozone. Burlington: Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network, 1998.

WEEVILS (CURCULIONOIDEA)

(excluding Scolytidae, Platopodidae)

Robert S. Anderson

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

The weevil fauna of Canada is generally well known. Handbooks for the identification of Canadian Scolytidae (Bright 1976) and the first volume (Bright 1993) of three projected for the remainder of the Curculionoidea have already been published. The recent checklist of Canadian beetles (Bousquet 1991) provides a list of the species of Curculionoidea in Canada as well as a review of their general distribution patterns by province.

In assembling this overview of the Curculionoidea of the Montane Cordillera, the Checklist of the Beetles of Canada and Alaska (Bousquet 1991) served as the main source of information. Species recorded from British Columbia or Alberta in this checklist were noted in a preliminary list which was then revised following personal examination of distribution records for the species in the Canadian National Collection of Insects at Agriculture Canada and at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. Species were deleted if their distributions based on the examination of specimen records were not coincident with the extent of the Montane Cordillera ecozone. Six species, Allandrus populi, Otiorhynchus raucus, Anthonomus albus, Tychius meliloti, Cylindrocopturus helianthus and Ceutorhynchus ovipennis, recently recorded from British Columbia, were added to the list.

The classification of Curculioniondea follows that of Bousquet (1991) although the higher classification on a world level is the subject of much debate (Thompson 1992; Kuschel, 1995; Marvaldi 1997). Identifications of Canadian genera and species of Curculionoidea can be made using Bright (1976) for Scolytidae, and Bright (1993) for Nemonychidae, Anthribidae, Rhynchitidae, Apionidae and Platypodidae. The forthcoming two volumes detailing the Canadian Curculionidae by Bright will allow for the identification of the remainder of the Canadian fauna. For the present, identifications can be made for a substantial portion of the fauna of British Columbia using Hatch (1971). Notable more comprehensive revisions include Kuschel (1989) for Nemonychidae, Kissinger (1968) for Apion Herbst, Bright (1994) for Sitona Germar, Warner and Negley (1976) for Otiorhynchus Germar, Van Dyke (1933) for Lepesoma Motschulsky (as Dyslobus LeConte), Buchanan (1936) for Panscopus Schoenherr, Henderson (1940) and O'Brien (1981) for Listronotus Jekel (now including Lixellus LeConte), Anderson (1988) for Cleonini, O'Brien (1970) for Dorytomus Germar, Anderson (1989) for Rhynchaeninae, Clark (1971) and Anderson and Howden (1994) for Tychius Germar, Hoebeke and Whitehead (1980) for Rhinoncus Schoenherr, and Vaurie (1951) for Sphenophorus Schoenherr. North American genera (with the exception of recent additions to the fauna) can be identified using Kissinger (1964). Species level identifications in some speciose genera such as Pissodes Germar, Dorytomus, Magdalis Germar, Anthonomus Germar and Ceutorhynchus Germar are difficult and require consultation of extensive reference materials.