MICHIGAif STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 305 



four-jointed tarsus or foot (though in reality there are more 

 generally five joints), an ovoid form, narrowing in front, the 

 sides pressed by the convex elytra or wing-covers, the antennae 

 or feelers attached to the snout, and either elbowed or straight, 

 and composed of nine, ten, eleven, or twelve joints, — the first 

 of which is always long, and the terminal three generally 

 united in a club or knob ; and finally, stout legs with swollen 

 thighs, sometimes bearing spines. 



The larvas of these snout-beetles are wliitish or yellowish, 

 and fleshy grubs, always without legs, or having only in the 

 place of them fleshy tubercles, which in a measure perform 

 the functions of legs ; the body is oblong, with the back gen- 

 erally arched, but sometimes straight. With these character- 

 istics in your mind you cannot fail to recognize a snout-beetle 

 when you see one. Now there is hardly one of the one 

 hundred families that I have referred to from which so many 

 injurious species can be enumerated, for with the exception of 

 an European species {Anthrihus varius), whose larva was 

 found l)y Ratzeburg to destroy bark-lice, they are all vegeta- 

 rians, the larvse inhabiting either the roots, stems, leaves, or 

 fruits of plants, and the beetles feeding on the same. So, 

 whenever you find an insect with the characters just given,, 

 you may rest morally certain that it is injurious, and should 

 be destroyed without mercy. This family is not only one of 

 the most injurious, but, on account of the secretive habits of 

 the larva?, the insects comprising it are the most difficult to 

 control. When a worm is openly and above board denuding 

 our trees, we at least readily become aware of the fact, and 

 can, if we choose, apply the remedy ; but when it surrejiti- 

 tiously, and always under cover, gnaws away at the heart of 

 our grains and fruits, we become in a measure helpless to 

 defend ourselves. But even Jiere, where the enemy is so well 

 ambushed and hidden, the proper tactics, based on thorough 

 knowledge, will frequently enable us to penetrate the defenses 

 and conquer the foe. 

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