I40 SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Synonyms: 



sticticus Qyll,.: Schon. Cure, 1833, i, ]). 172 (Bracliytarsus). 

 obsoletus Faiiumus: Schon. Cure, 1839, v, p. 107. 



Examples of this little Ryhnchoporid beetle were sent to me under 

 date of August 28, by Mr. C. A. Gillett, of Shortsville, Ontario county, 

 N. Y., with this communication : 



Depredations upon Wheat. 



I send you with this mail a few specimens of an insect that I find in a 

 bin of newly-threshed wheat. I also send a few kernels of wheat that 

 were taken from the same bin. They show the work of an insect, pre- 

 sumably this one, in its growth from a larval state. Does it not seem 

 that wheat is yet to be affected by this insect much as the pea is by the 

 pea-bug ? The few kernels inclosed with the bugs were thought to be 

 perfect when put in the vial. If any marks are detected upon them, it 

 must be owing to the eating of them by the bugs. 



The sound kernels were found to have been eaten into when received; 

 and during the following days that they were observed, the cavities in- 

 creased in number and in size. There could, therefore, be but little doubt 

 but that the burrowing of the wheat in the bin had been by this insect. 

 The kernels taken from the bin showed different degrees of injury, 

 from small rounded holes on the outer surface, to tlie excavation of 

 nearly all of the interior. 



It is not probable, however, that the fears expressed of serious injury 

 to wheat by this insect are to be realized. It belongs to the Rhyncho- 

 pora, or snout-beetles, and to the family of A^ithribidcB, named from 

 the Greek anihos, a flower, and fribo, to destroy. Most of the larvae of 

 this family find their food within the seeds and stems of plants. 



The Larvae of Brachytarsus Parasitic. 



Dr. LeConte, in his " Rhynchophoraof North America," Introduction, 

 page xiv, remarks: While the food of the Rhynchophora is almost 

 universally vegetable tissues, either living or dead, Brachytarsus is a 

 parasite upon a Hemipteron, of the genus Coccus, as narrated by Nord- 

 linger, Stettin Ent. Zeitung, 1848, p. 230; Lacord., Gen. Col., vii, 481. 



A species occurring in Europe, the B. varius Fabr., is known to live 

 upon a Coccus infesting pine trees. 



See also Prof. Westwood's remarks upon the parasitical connection of 

 some of the species of this genus with the CoccidcB, in his Classification 

 of Insects, i, p. 332. 



The larvae of this genus Brachytarsus, according to Dr. Le Baron, 

 are found under the scales of bark-lice, where they are believed to be 

 parasitic. 



