3l8 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



winter in the pine-forests of Germany, destroys the Cocci in great 

 numbers. The genus Attelabiis has a very pretty species, with 

 red elytra and corselet ; its habits have been very carefully ob- 

 served by M. Goureau. The female deposits an &^% at the end 

 of an oak-leaf, then she splits the large median nervure across 

 several times close together, then she folds the leaf and rolls it 

 up, and thus makes a safe home for her larva, which she never 

 sees, and of whose habits she can form no conception. The larvae 

 live in leaves and flowers ; they only eat the tissue between the 

 outside skin. They change their skin several times before they 

 attain their full growth ; and having spun a cocoon of silk, or of 

 glutinous matter, they shut themselves up and undergo their 



Rhynchites Bacchus. Apodems coryli. 



transformations. The larvae of other species live either in the 

 stems of plants or in fruits, which serve them as a shelter and as 

 food. They do great mischief to the plants upon which they live, 

 but they are perfectly harmless as beetles. The species of the 

 genus Apoderiis and Rhynchites — the last being characterised by a 

 long and thin beak — have the instinct of cutting the stems of 

 leaves or the ends of twigs, and of laying their eggs just inside ; 

 and their larvae, which can only live upon fading leaves, have thus 

 to thank their parent for giving them life, and their peculiar 

 means of subsistence also. 



In the engraving above the real and magnified sizes of two 

 common beetles, whose long beaks are very visible, are shown. 



Many of the species are very hurtful to fruit trees, and it 

 appears that the male insect, in some instances, helps the female 



