18 FAMILY I. BREXTHIDJE. 



Family I. BRENTHID.E. 



THE PRIMITIVE WEEVILS. 



A family of about TOO species, confined chiefly to the trop- 

 ical regions and com] (rising very elongate, slender beetles having 

 the mouth organs differing widely according to genus and sex, 

 the antennjv 10- or 11-jointed, not elbowed and without distinct 

 club (Fig. 12, A.), the basal joint stouter and a little longer than 

 second. Beak straight, directly continuing the long axis of the 

 body, often so thick at base as to form an elongate head; eyes 

 small, rounded, not granulated ; labrum wanting. Thorax very 

 elongate, truncate before, pedunculate behind, without postoc- 

 ular lobes. Elytra elongate, covering the pygidium, with a fold 

 close to the margin on the inner surface; inner wings well de- 

 veloped. Prosternum long in front of the coxre, its suture obso- 

 lete; mesosternum rather long, its side pieces diagonally divided: 

 metasternum very long, its episterna narrow. Abdomen with 

 five ventral segments, the first and second very long, third and 

 fourth short, fifth longer, flat, rounded behind. Legs rather 

 stout, femora clavate; tarsi spongy pubescent beneath, the third 

 joint bilobed. 



The beak of the female is slender, in our species, usually long, 

 cylindrical I Fig. 24) and provided with pincer-shaped mandi- 

 bles, thus enabling her to bore deep holes in the wood beneath 

 the bark of dead trees, often inserting the beak up to the 

 eyes and afterwards depositing an egg in each hole. The males, 



contrary to the general rule, are usu- 

 ally larger than the females, and have 

 the mandibles stout, curved and pointed 

 and the beak in our most common 

 species broad, flat and widened toward 

 the end. (Fig. 2o.) The strong man- 

 dibles of the male are used in fighting, 

 and A. R. Wallace, in his "Malay Arch- 

 ipelago'' gives an interesting account of 

 two male Brenthians that he saw fight- 

 ing for a female, who stood close by 

 busy at her boring. "They pushed at 

 each other with their beaks and clawed 



Fig. 23. Eupsahs mmuta Urury. 



Male, x 4- (After Felt.) am ] thumped, apparently in the greatest 

 rage, although their coats of mail must have saved both from 



