62 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



the snout. These weevils, being very numerous, and differing also 

 greatly in their forms and habits, have latterly been divided into a 

 great number of genera, distinguished from each other by more or 

 less striking peculiarities. The convenience and simplicity of the 

 former arrangement has induced me to retain the old names Cur- 

 culio, RhynchcenuS) and Calandra, for the few species to be here 

 described, while the names of the new genera, to which they have 

 been referred, will be included within parentheses. 



Curculio (Pandeleteius) hilaris of Herbst, which we may call 

 the gray-sided Curculio, is a little pale brown beetle, variegated 

 with gray upon the sides. Its snout is short, broad, and slightly 

 furrowed in the middle ; there are three blackish stripes on the 

 thorax, between which are two of a light gray color ; the wing- 

 covers have a broad stripe of light gray on the outer side, edged 

 within by a slender blackish line, and sending two short oblique 

 branches almost across each wing-cover ; and the fore-legs are 

 much larger than the others. The length of this beetle varies 

 from one eighth to one fifth of an inch. The larva lives in the 

 trunks of the white oak, on which the beetles may be found about 

 the last of May and the beginning of June. 



The Pales weevil, Curculio (Hylobius) Pales of Herbst, is a 

 beetle of a deep chestnut-brown color, having a line and a few 

 dots of a yellowish white color on the thorax, and many small 

 yellowish white spots sprinkled over the wing-covers. All the 

 thighs are toothed beneath, and the snout is slender, cylindrical, 

 inclined, and nearly as long as the thorax. On account of the 

 length of the snout this insect has been placed in the genus Rhyn- 

 chcenus by some naturalists ; but the antennae are implanted before 

 the middle of the snout, and not far from the sides of the mouth. 

 This beetle measures from two to three eighths of an inch in 

 length, exclusive of the snout. It may be found in great abun- 

 dance, in May and June, on board-fences, the sides of new wooden 

 buildings, and on the trunks of pine-trees. I have discovered 

 them, in considerable numbers, under the bark of the pitch-pine. 

 The larvae, which do not materially differ from those of other 

 weevils, inhabit these and probably other kinds of pines, doing 

 sometimes immense injury to them. Wilson, the ornithologist, 



