﻿THE RHYNCHOPHORA, OR WEEVILS. 183 



Some of the Polydrosi are beautifully clothed with 

 bright-green metallic scales, and are often mistaken for 

 Phyllobii, from which they differ in their longer and 

 thinner legs and antennae, and the possession of long 

 and distinct rostral grooves for the antennae. 



The family of CLEONiDiE comprises some of our 

 largest and most handsome species. In it the rostrum 

 is rather long, stout, either suddenly or gradually bent 

 down, usually somewhat cylindrical, sometimes slightly 

 angulated, and very often thickened towards the front. 



In Cleonus the rostrum is longer than the head, robust, 

 slightly arched, angulated, and sculptured on the upper 

 side, with the antennae inserted near its apex, and the 

 scrobes moderately separated, but not joined on the 

 under side ; the tarsi spongy beneath, more or less flat ; 

 the tibiae with a dagger-like spine at the apex ; and the 

 body oblong, cylindrical, and pubescent. Our species 

 are large, variegated with grey or reddish scales, and 

 found in waste places ; they feed in the stems of thistles, 

 etc., some of them being of excessive rarity. As in all 

 the other members of this family, their integuments are 

 exceedingly hard. 



Alophus iriguttatus, not uncommon near London, 

 being often found basking in the sun on hot walls, is 

 conspicuous for its white V-shaped mark behind. 



The MolytidjE have the rostrum moderately long, de- 

 flexed, sub-cylindrieal, rather arched, and mostly not 

 very stout. With the exception of Phytonomus and 

 Limobius, they have the tibiae armed at the apex on the 

 inner side with a strong hook. 



They are mostly of considerable bulk ; the smallest, 

 Tanysphyrus lemnee, foimd in wet marshy places, exhi- 

 biting a gre^t resemblance to the structure of its larger 



