COLEOPTERA 169 



Family Brentid^ 

 The Primitive Weevils 



This family is confined chiefly to tropical regions; only six species 

 are found in the United States, and but one of these in the North. 



The northern brentid, Eupsalis minuta. — In the female 

 the head is prolonged into a slender snout ; but in the male 

 the snout is broad and flat, and is armed with a pair of 

 powerful jaws (Fig. 300). These are weapons of offence, 

 for the males fight desperately for their mates; and too, the 

 males are generally larger than the females. In these re- 

 spects these insects resemble the stag-beetles, the males of Fig 5oo 

 which also fight for their mates. 



The northern brentid is found beneath the bark of recently felled or 

 dying oak, poplar, and beech trees in the solid wood of which the larvas 

 bore; and is widely distributed over the United States and Canada. 



Family Platystomid.43 

 The Fungus Weevils 



This family includes a small number of snout- beetles in which the 

 beak is short and broad, and the labrum is present; the antennae are not 

 elbowed, and the terminal segments rarely form a compact club; the 

 palpi are flexible; and the prothorax bears a transverse elevated ridge at 

 or near its base. 



The larva? of many species infest woody fungi, others breed in the 

 smut of corn and wheat, and still others bore in dead wood. The larvae 

 of one cosmopolitan species, known as the coffee-bean weevil, Arceocerm 

 fascictddtus, attack seeds of various plants. 



Sixty-two species of this family are known to occur in America north 

 of Mexico. This family is the Anthribidae of many authors. 



Family Curculionid^e 

 The Curculios or Typical Snout-beetles 



The Curculionidae is a very large family; it is represented in America 

 north of Mexico by more than eighteen hundred species; to it belong 

 four-fifths of all our Rhynchophora. This family includes the typical 

 snout-beetles, the head being prolonged into a well-defined beak, which 

 is usually long and curved downward. 



The following are some of the more important members of this family. 



The sweet potato weevil, Cylas formicdrius , is an Asiatic species which 

 has invaded the Gulf states. The beetle is somewhat ant-like in form, 

 a fact which suggested its specific name. It is about f of an inch in 

 length. The elytra, head, and snout are bluish-black while the prothorax 

 is reddish -brown. Both larvas and adults bore into the stems and tubers 

 of the sweet potato and sometimes do very serious damage. 



The imbricated snout-beetle, Epiazrus imbriedtus, is usually a dull, 

 silvery white beetle with brown markings; but the species is quite vari- 



