SUBFAMILY XIII. CALANDRIN^3. 549 



or terminal joint much longer, transverse, corneous, its front face 

 flat, spongy and sensitive; front coxre narrowly separated. 



859 (8971). RIIYNCIIOPHOBUS CRUENTATUS Fab., 1775, 128. 



Elongate-oval, robust, depressed above. Black, shining. Thorax us- 

 ually red, the sides broadly margined with black and disc with a median 

 black stripe; elytra black with red spots; body beneath piceous, antennae, 

 legs and abdomen paler. Beak shorter than thorax, slender, cylindrical, 

 granulated above, male; somewhat longer, more slender and smooth, female. 

 Thorax oval, longer than wide, base obtusely rounded, sides feebly curved, 

 disc smooth, impunctate. Elytra one-fourth wider than thorax; striae deep, 

 not punctured; intervals feebly convex, smooth. Legs fringed within with 

 long yellowish hairs. Length 20 31 mm. (Fig. 118.) 



Sarasota and Dunedin, Fla., Feb. 20 June 4. Occurs from 

 South Carolina to Louisiana. Common in Florida where it lives 

 on the cabbage palmetto, Rnbal palmetto E. & S., and date palms, 

 breeding in the dying trunks. Before pupating the larva forms 

 an excavation in which it constructs a cocoon from an inch and 

 a half to two inches in length, composed of fibre cemented with 

 a glutinous secretion. (Hamilton.) Chittenden (1902-b, 25) 

 states that the adults are very fond of the terminal bud after it 

 is bruised, when it gives off a vinous odor, and also of the sap 

 which exudes from recently felled or wounded trees. The larvae 

 bore in the soft, pulpy substance in the trunk and also in the 

 roots. They are quite active, capable of traveling some little dis- 

 tance, and are noisy when at work, "making a sound like the 

 escape of water with an occasional screech like a choked hen." 

 Many specimens are wholly black, var. zimmermanni Fahr., but 

 they do not differ structurally and are only a color variety. 



Dr. R. E. Kunze (Ent. Materia Medica, p. 7) states that the 

 larva of this species is called "grougrou" in the West Indies, 

 where it furnishes an epicurean morsel when roasted and fried 

 and has moreover the singular property of producing milk in 

 women. A similar species is used by Tuscan peasants as a charm 

 for toothache, by the simple process of crushing the larvae be- 

 tween the fingers until the latter have absorbed sufficient oil 

 with which to anoint the tooth. 



Rhynchopliorus palmarum Linn., a tropical American species, is list- 

 ed by Henshaw from the United States, but we are unable to find a record 

 of its occurrence. 



II. RHODOB.ENUS Lee., 1876. 



Species usually red with black spots, distinguished by charac- 

 ters given in key and by having the scape long, reaching nearly to 



