FIELD BOOK OF INSECTS. 



Two cosmopolitan species may be men- 

 tioned. C. granaria, probably the first 

 beetle to attract man's notice, is about .13 in. long; chest- 

 nut-brown to black, moderately shining; the pronotum 

 with coarse, oval punctures; the elytra with small punctures 

 in the longitudinal grooves. It is wingless and is found 

 about granaries or wherever grain goes. The larvas live 

 inside the kernels, a single grain of wheat being food 

 enough for one. This does not sound very destructive, 

 but the females are prolific and there are from three to 

 probably more than six generations a year. Authorities 

 have estimated that its food costs us about twenty million 

 dollars a year. C. oryza (Plate LXXXVI) is called the 

 Rice Weevil and is probably a native of India but now 

 infests all sorts of stored grain in this country. It is less 

 than .13 in. long; reddish-brown to black, not shining; 

 each elytron with two reddish spots. It is more apt to be 

 found in crackers and packages of cereals than is granaria. 



SCOLYTID^: 



N 



The U. S. Department of Agriculture has stated that if 

 the timber destroyed by Scolytidag in the United States 

 during the past fifty years were living to-day, its stumpage 

 value would be more than $1,000,000,000. For the most 

 part, these beetles live between the bark and the wood, 

 making galleries which are often quite characteristic of the 

 particular species that fashioned them and which cause 

 the insects to be called Engraver Beetles. The insects 

 are small and their taxonomy is difficult. The eyes are 

 usually oblong (see Bostrychidse). The following sub- 

 families have been recognized. 



1. Anterior tarsi with the first joint longer than the next 

 three combined. Platypodinae, of which our only genus is 

 Platypus. They frequently come to light in the Southern 

 States. 



Anterior tarsi with first joint shorter than the next 

 three combined 2. 



2. Anterior tibiae with a prominent process on the outer 

 apical angle Scolytinae. 



Anterior tibiae without such a process Ipinse. 



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