uo 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



SjJecies of tSpheno23horus are larger than those of ('aland ra, n\v\ liavc a wedge- 

 shaped antennal club. Their general form is simihir to that of Calaialra, althongh 

 the prothorax is not quite as large jiroportionally. The species of SpJtenopliorux are 

 not easily distinguished. Several of tliein have been found to injure corn 1)y eating 

 into the voung j)lants and leaves just after they come up out of the ground, and Mr. 

 L. O. Howard found the larvaj of S. robiisUus boring in the ])ith of cornstalks uear the 

 ground. 



Jihi/>ir/to]j/iorHS is the genus in which are included tlie large palm--weevils ; its 

 species are distinguished from the other Calandriiue by having wide side-pieces of the 

 metathorax. Ti'. ffrrugineus, which is figured, is the well-known Javan palm-liorer, 

 found throughout the East Indies. Ji. cruentntus is common in the southern United 

 States, where it feeds upon the palmetto. It is aliout 1.2r> inches long, of a dcej) 

 sliining black, marked with mahogany-red. Its form is similar to ILferrugineus. Ji, 



pa//jinni>ii, of similar general ap])earance to li.fenmgineus, 

 has Ijeen taken in southern California, although its regular 

 liabitat is further to the south in tropical America. The 

 Large, fleshy, white larvfP of the three abcivc-mentioned 

 species of jRhg>ichop/ion(s bore in the stems of palms; 

 and Kirby and Spence write as follows of them: — 

 " ^Elian sjx'aks of an Indian king, who, for a dessert, 

 instead of fruit set before his Grecian guests a roasted 

 worm taki'u from a plant, jirobably the lar\ie of this in- 

 sect, which he says the Indians esteem very delicious, — a 

 character that was confirmed by some of the Greeks who 

 tasted it. Madame Merian li.as figured one of these larvae, 

 and says that the nati\es of Surinam roast and eat them 

 as something exquisite. A friend of mine, who has re- 

 sided a good deal in the West Indies, where the palm- 

 grub is called gi-//i/rii, informs me that the hite Sir John 

 La Forey, who was somewhat of an epicure, was extremely 

 fond of it when jiroperly cooked." In Demarara a species of jR/u/nc/ioj>horus attacks 

 the sugar-cane. 



The largest sub-family of the Curculicnnda' is the Curculioninie, which contains 

 weevils in which tlie male h.as an appended anal segment more than the female 

 possesses; in which each elytron has an acute lateral fold on the inner 

 surface; in which the antenna^ have a solid or annulated club, the tarsi 

 are dilated, and the usually pincer-shaped mandibles are without a scar, 

 that, in the next sub-family, Otiorhynchime, is caused by the falling off 

 of an appended mandibular piece. 



Halaniims is readily distinguished from all other weevils, in fact 

 from all other Coleoptera, by having mandibles that move vertically ; 

 each of these mandibles, which are at the tip of a slender proboscis, 

 has it.'? condyle and consequently its axis of motion on its upper side. 

 Sometimes the ju'oboscis is longer than the body, not rarely twice as 

 long as the body in females, since they use it to liore holes in which 

 to oviposit. As these holes are bored in nuts having very tliick husks 

 of the female must be corresjiondinglv long. Few jiersons have failed to notice the so- 

 called worms in chestnuts. These worms, when in American chestnuts, are the footless 



Fig. 370. — Wnjiirhopliorus fcr- 



Fig. SHO.— Bala- 

 niiius nasicus* 



the ])roboscis 



