of Petalocerous Insects » 149 



It is remarkable that in Mr. Curtis's specimen, the only one I 

 have seen of the insect here described, the acuducted foveae and 

 parts of the head, prothorax, elytra, legs and podex, are partially 

 covered with a white substance resembling fine flour and not at 

 all granular; a circumstance opening the door to a probable con- 

 jecture as to the use of their peculiar sculpture, and proving that 

 Creative Wisdom had an important end in view, when it scored 

 these little beetles with seemingly insignificant scratches. When 

 masons prepare the wall of a house for the outward coat of plaister, 

 they draw lines upon it with their trowels, by means of which 

 this coat adheres to the other. So the acuducted parts of the 

 insects I am describing, in this respect differing from the other 

 RutelidcB, afford a surface properly prepared for the adhesion of 

 the above matter. 



From their agreeing together in their sculpture it is extremely 

 probable that all the species of this genus of the New World 

 collect some farinaceous substance, most likely from the plants 

 that they frequent, for some purpose important to them in their 

 peculiar economy. Were it granular I should at once pronounce 

 It to be pollen, and as the hive-bee knows how to reduce the 

 farina of flowers to a« impalpable powder, before it forms it itito 

 the little masses of paste which it carries in its posterior tibiae, so 

 may the insects in question. Whether the farina thus collected 

 is intended for the food of the insect itself, or its larvaj, can be 

 determined only by actual observation ; but, reasoning from ana- 

 logy, the latter seems the most probable. I had occasion to ob- 

 serve however, * with regard to another of the same family, that 

 the molary part of its mandibles was filled with a similar sub- 

 stance, which makes for the former opinion. These circumstances 

 tend to confirm Mr. W. S. MacLeay^s hypothesis, that the Rute- 

 lidce^ though like the Melolonthidce, &c. furnished with corneous 

 ^andibulae and maxillae,, are anthobiouSj or derive their food from 

 the blossom and not the foliage of the plants. J M. Latreille how- 

 ever arranges them with the Di/nasiidce, &c., amongst his Xi/lo- 

 phili^ to which they certainly exhibit some affinity. + 



♦ Linn. Trans. XIV. 106. % Trichius retusns Fab. Sys. Eleuth. ii. 133. n. 

 J6. and Rutela lacerata Germar Insect. Spec. Nov. 119. n. 204, appear to belong 

 to this Genus, t Families Naturelles, &c. 370. Ilor. Entomolog. 72. 



