58 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



The two-spotted Attelabus, Attelabus bipustulatus of Fabri- 

 cius, is also found on oak-leaves during the same season as 

 the preceding. It is of a deep blue-black color, with a square 

 dull red spot on the shoulders of each wing-cover. It measures 

 rather more than one eighth of an inch in length. 



Two or three beetles of this family are very hurtful to the 

 vine, in Europe, by nibbling the midrib of the leaves, so that 

 the latter may be rolled up to form a reti-eat for their young. 

 They also puncture the buds and the tender fruit of this and of 

 other plants. In consequence of the damage caused by them 

 and by their larvae, whole vineyards are sometimes stripped of 

 their leaves, and fruit-trees are despoiled of their foliage and 

 fruits. These insects belong to the genus Ri/nchites, a name 

 given to them in allusion to their snouts. I have not seen any 

 of them on vines or fruit-trees in this country. The largest 

 one found here is the Rynchites hicolor of Fabricius, or two- 

 colored Rynchites. This insect is met w^ith in June, July, and 

 August, on cultivated and wild rose-bushes, sometimes in 

 considerable numbers. That they injvire these plants is highly 

 probable, but the nature and extent of the injury is not cer- 

 tainly known. The whole of the upper side of this beetle is 

 red, except the rather long and slender snout, which, together 

 with the antennas, legs, and under side of the body, is black; 

 it is thickly covered with small punctures, and is slightly downy, 

 and there are rows of larger punctures on the wing-covers. It 

 measures one fifth of an inch from the eyes to the tip of the 

 abdomen. 



The grubs of many kinds of Apion destroy the seeds of 

 plants. In Europe they do much mischief to clover in this way. 

 They receive the above name from the shape of the beetles, 

 which resembles that of a pear. Say's Apion, Apion Sayi* of 

 Schonherr, is a minute black species, not more than one tenth 

 of an inch long, exclusive of the slender sharp-pointed snout. 

 Its grubs live in the pods of the common wild indigo bush, 

 Baptisia tinctoria, devouring the seeds. A smaller kind, some- 



* Apion rostrum, Say. 



