22 cuRCULioNii),?:. 



groups, such as the Cb.YPTOKEHYIS'CHIjS'^ and CEUTHOREHYKCHINiE^ 



in which there is a pectoral channel for the reception of the 

 rostrum ; with this organ hidden away and the legs packed closely 

 together (the femora are frequently grooved to receive the tibiee) 

 the insect may readily be mistaken for a lump of earth, a bit of 

 bark or a bird-droppiug. The larger ground-frequenting species 

 when feigning deatii often lie with the legs fully and stiffly 

 extended in a bunch. As these limbs are by no means easy to 

 break, this attitude would render it difficult for smaller birds to 

 swallow them ; but that it is hardly an effective protection against 

 large birds may be illustrated by the fact that 1 have taken from 

 the crop of a single South African bustard, among other insects, 

 65 fair-sized ground weevils belonging to 1\) different species, 

 and evidently all of them had been swallowed whole. 



It is by no means clear what is the special function of the 

 rostrum in those species in which this organ is i-elatively short 

 and stout, and similar in the two sexes ; but ii! the long-beaked 

 forms it has been sufficiently shown that the slender rostrum of 

 the female is used to enable her to bore a hole into some special 

 portion of the food-plant which is suitable for the reception of 

 her eggs. In such species the character may have been first 

 developed in the female and then traiisferred to the male ; just 

 as in most bees the pollen-collecting apparatus is partly de\eloped 

 in the males, to wdiom it is quite useless, and may even be 

 perfectly developed, as in Bovihus. 



In the ease of BuJaninns it has been definitely stated {cf. 

 Bargagli, Bull. Soc. Eiit. Ital. xv, 1883, p. 314) that the female, 

 after boring the hole, deposits the egg in the orifice and pushes 

 it down to the bottom with its rostrum, which thus entirely 

 fulfils the functions of an ovipositor. This statement has been 

 reitei-ated by various authors, but apparently without direct 

 confirmation. Tabre (8ouv. Entomol. vii, p. 115) has with some 

 justice contended that such a procedure is in the highest degree 

 improbable, and in the case of Balauinus eleplias, Glyl., he has 

 sufficiently demonstrated that the egg is deposited directly at the 

 bottom of the bore-hole by means of an extensible, membranous 

 ovipositor about as long as the rostrum. It seeujs likely that 

 this will prove to be the normal method of ovi position. 



Much has been written concerning the remarkable habits of 

 the leaf-rolling species of Bhyvcliiics, Apoderus, etc., which are 

 well represented in the Indian fauna. The method adopted is to 

 some extent conditioned by the size of the leaves of the food-plant. 

 "When these are small, a whole leaf, or even more than one, is 

 utilised to form the funnel or packet which is destined to serve 

 at the same time as food and protection for the larvae ; but more 

 often only a portion of a leaf is used, and the manner in which 

 this is cut out and folded appears to be characteristic for each 

 species. The rolls of Rhyncliites are usually more elongate, 

 funnel-shaped, or cigar-shaped, while those of Ajjodervs and 

 Atielahns are relatively shorter and approximately cylindricaL 



