OF WASHINGTON. 75 
FEBRUARY 10, 1887. 
Five members present. President Howard in the chair. 
Mr. Smith presented a notice of an amendment of Article III 
of the Constitution. 
Mr. Mann gave a review of his work on the Bibliography of 
Economic Entomology, partly done by him privately in former 
years and partly done during his connection with the United 
States Entomological Commission and the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. 
Mr. Schwarz then read the following communication : 
ON THE GENUS PHYTOBIUS. The Curculionid genus Phytobius Schoen- 
hcrr, as restricted by more recent authors, comprises two rather rare 
European species and was introduced into our fauna because a single 
specimen had been found in 1874, in Michigan. Dr. LeConte determined 
the same as being identical with the European Ph. velatus. The genus is 
at once known by the narrow, filiform tarsi, the 3d joint not being lobed ; 
bv the very long claw-joint and the very slender tarsi Every one of these 
three characters is unique in the tribe Cryptorhynchini to which the genus 
Phytobius belongs, but the same combination of the same characters recurs 
in another tribe of Curculionidae, as well as in several other widely different 
families of Coleoptera, e. g , HaliplidfE, Byrrhidce, Elmidce, Dascyllid(za.nd. 
Chrysomeltdce. Wherever this combination of characters occurs it points, 
so far as our experience goes, toward an aquatic or at least semi-aquatic 
mode of life, and so it does in Phytobius. But this genus is remarkable in 
being the only known really aquatic genus among the Rhynchophora, all 
other hydrophilous genera of the family, e. g.,Bagous, Stenopdmus, 
Lissorhoptrtis, Tanysphyrus, Lixellus, Barilepton, etc., being more or less 
semi-aquatic only. In Phytobius the larva, pupa and imago live constantly 
under the surface of the water, the imago only coming ashore to hibernate 
under debris in very wet ground. The life-history of the genus has been 
carefully studied by Mr. Edouard Ferris, and I may be permitted to 
insert here, in translation, a short abstract from his remarks (Ann. Soc. 
Ent. de France, 1873, p. 88). Mr. Ferris found the insect in all its stages 
under water on the filiform leaves of Myriophyllum spicatum, a plant 
which is also very common in North America. "The larva does not 
differ essentially from those of the typical Curculionidae, but as in those 
species which live exposed above ground on plants, e. g., Phytonomus, 
Cionus, etc., it is covered with a viscous liquid which is insoluble in water, 
and by means of which the larva is able to retain its position even in a 
pretty strong current. When about to transform it secretes from the 
anus a larger quantity of the gummy substance than ordinarily, or possibly 
also a different substance. This substance is spread out over the whole 
body by a peculiar movement of the segments, and finally covers the whole 
