The parent insects of the Arkansas laboratory strain of Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky were collected by the author from a bin of corn located on a farm near Stuttgart, Ark., in 1955. The strain was retained and reared as a separate culture because the insects were darker and larger than the laboratory strain of “rice” weevils. Also, preliminary efforts to rear the strain on wheat and corn showed that wheat was a non-productive medium for the Stuttgart weevils. These differences (since shown to be non-definitive characters for separating the so-called rice weevil into separate species [Soderstrom and Wilbur 1965, 1966]) suggested further study to establish whether more than one species of rice weevil was involved as had been suggested in studies by Japanese workers (Kiritani [1965] reviews some of these studies). However, some authorities held that the differences were expressions of intraspecific variation within the species and advised that continued growth of the strain on a wheat diet would erase them.