THE LONG-HEADED WEEVILS. 



205 



colour of the elytra is black, and upon eacli of them there are 

 four large chestnut-coloured marks shaped as seen in the illus- 

 tration, and producing a definite though not conspicuous pattern 

 of chestnut on black. The legs, especially the first pair, are very 

 long and rather powerful, and in all probability the length of 

 the front legs is needful in order to enable the insect to keep its 

 elongated head off the ground. 



As in the preceding insect, the head of tlie female is very much 

 shorter than that of the male, and in consequence, though a 

 curious-looking Beetle, she is not quite so strange and weird in 

 appearance as the male. The elytra are decorated with longi- 

 tudinal ridges, and in the furrows between each pair of ridges 

 is set a row of circular impressed pits something like those of 

 the Diurus, but not possessing the wliite substance which dis- 

 tinguishes that insect. This Beetle is quite as variable in point 

 of size as our Stag Beetle, some specimens being scarcely one- 

 third as large as that whicli I have described. 



The extraordinary insect which is shown in the accompanying 

 illustration has a head longer in proportion to its width and the 

 size of the owner than is the case with any known insect in the 

 world. It is called Antliarliinus Zamice, and is a native of 

 Southern Africa. On ac- 

 count of the ex traordinarily 

 long head, with its peculiar 

 curve, the insect was at 

 first placed in or near the 

 genus Balaninus, of which 

 our common Nut Weevil 

 is so excellent an example. 



The head is scarcely 

 thicker than a human hair, 

 and is quite three times as 

 long as the body. Tlie 

 antennae are placed near 

 the base of the head instead of near the end, as in the previous 

 examples of the Brenthidae, and the mouth is set at the extreme 

 tip. In many Beetles where the mouth is at the end of a long 

 "rostrum," as this peculiarly developed head is called, the tip of 

 the rostrum is widened so as to accommodate the jaws and other 



Fig. 99.— Antliarliinus ZamiaB. 

 (Red.hhli brown.) 



