340 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



Species of Sphenophorus are larger than those of Calandra, and have a wedge- 

 shaped antennal club. Their general form is similar to that of Calandra, although 

 the prothorax is not quite as large proportionally. The species of /Sphenophorus are 

 not easily distinguished. Several of them have been found to injure corn by eating 

 into the young plants and leaves just after they come up out of the ground, and Mr. 

 L. O. Howard found the larvse of /S. robusius boring in the pith of cornstalks near the 

 ground. 



Rhynchophorus is the genus in which are included the large palm-weevils; its 

 species are distinguished from the other Calandrinae by having wide side-pieces of the 

 metathorax. R. ferrugineus, which is figured, is the well-known Javan palm-borer, 

 found throughout the East Indies. R. cruentatus is common in the southern United 

 States, where it feeds upon the palmetto. It is about 1.25 inches long, of a deep 

 shining black, marked with mahogany-red. Its form is similar to R.ferrugineus. 11. 



palmarum, of similar general appearance to R.ferrugineus, 

 has been taken in southern California, although its regular 

 habitat is further to the south in tropical America. The 

 large, fleshy, white larva? of the thi'ee above-mentioned 

 species of Rhynchophorus bore in the stems of palms; 

 and Kirby and Spence write as follows of them : - 

 "^Elian speaks of an Indian king, who, for a dessert, 

 instead of fruit set before his Grecian guests a roasted 

 worm taken from a plant, probably the larvse of this in- 

 sect, which he says the Indians esteem very delicious, a 

 character that was confirmed by some of the Greeks who 

 tasted it. Madame Merian has figured one of these larvae, 

 and says that the natives of Surinam roast and eat them 

 as something exquisite. A friend of mine, who has re- 

 sided a good deal in the West Indies, where the palm- 

 grub is called grugrii, informs me that the late Sir John 

 La Forey, who was somewhat of an epicure, was extremely 

 fond of it when properly cooked." In Demarara a species of Rhynchophorus attacks 

 the sugar-cane. 



The largest sub-family of the Curculionidse is the Curculioninae, which contains 

 weevils in which the male has an appended anal segment more than the female 

 possesses ; in which each elytron has an acute lateral fold on the inner 

 surface ; in which the antennas have a solid or annulated club, the tarsi 

 are dilated, and the usually pincer-shaped mandibles are without a scar, 

 that, in the next sub-family, Otiorhynchinae, is caused by the falling off 

 of an appended mandibular piece. 



Balaninus is readily distinguished from all other weevils, in fact 



V dJ 



from all other Coleoptera, by having mandibles that move vertically ; 

 each of these mandibles, which are at the tip of a slender proboscis, 

 has its condyle and consequently its axis of motion on its upper side. 

 Sometimes the proboscis is longer than the body, not rarely twice as 

 long as the body in females, since they use it to bore holes in which 

 to oviposit. As these holes are bored in nuts having very thick husks, the proboscis 

 of the female must be correspondingly long. Few persons have failed to notice the so- 

 called worms in chestnuts. These worms, when in American chestnuts, are the footless 



FIG. 379. Rhynchophorus fer- 

 rugineus. 



FIG. 380. Bala- 

 nintts nasicus. 



