﻿THE RHYNCHOPHORA^ OR WEEVILS. 195 



do not touch the ribs and stem : they appear to make 

 an open network cocoon. C. blattarice (Plate XII, Fig. 

 4) is, perhaps, the prettiest, and is not uncommon. lu 

 repose, with its legs contracted, it affords an exact repre- 

 sentation of a small patch of bird-droppings. 



Nanophyes, a much smaller and elegantly banded in- 

 sect, occurs (locally) in great profusion on low plants of 

 Salicaria ; and the species of Gymnetron and Miarus 

 especially frequent Veronica, Antirrhinum, and Cam- 

 panula. They are mostly small, short-ovate, dull black, 

 and set with rows of short yellowish hairs. 



The Calandrid.e are here represented by one genus, 

 Sitophilus, containing two species, granarias and oryzce, 

 both doubtless imported, and the former being known 

 par excellence (or pur the want of it) as tlte Weevil. 

 Here the antennae are eight-jointed, the basal joint 

 being long, and the apical one forming a large knob; 

 the rostrum is long; the body somewhat flat; the thorax 

 very coarsely punctured, the elytra scarcely covering the 

 apex of the abdomen, and deeply striated, and the tibiae 

 spined at the apex. 



The " Corn-weevil'^ is small and pitchy-red in colour; 

 it bores a hole with its rostrum in the grain, in which it 

 lays an egg ; the young larva afterwards devouring all 

 the contents, and leaving merely the husk, wherein" it 

 turns to pupa. It has been observed that if suspected 

 grain be thrown into water, the good will sink, while the 

 infected seeds will float. 



The other species, distinguished by its four red spots, 

 attacks rice in a similar way. 



The CossoNiDiE have short antennae, of which the fu- 

 niculus is seven-jointed, the basal joint long, and the 

 club either two jointed or nearly solid, so that there 



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