126 OBSERVATIONS UPON SPECTES 



by M. Puis the ventral surface of the abdomen is not concave, but 

 the centre is flat, glossy and punrtured. 



In the Gardener's Chronicle for 1870 (p. 699, 21. May) the late 

 M. Andrew Murray published a notice with figures of a species of 

 Weevil, to which he gave the name of Phacecorynus funerarius 

 which appears to me to be merely a black variety of Ph. Zamiœ^ 

 judging from typical spécimens of the latter insect in the Hopeian 

 collection at Oxford under my charge, (in which the Curculiolidae 

 were, to a large extent, named by Schonherr). Mr. Murray's insects 

 were found infesting a number of différent species of Enceplialartos 

 lately imported from the interior of South Africa, 300 miles from 

 Natal by Mr. Bull, « some of which were found in an unsatisfactory 

 state, the stem being soft, with the scales loose and easily detached; 

 on pulling them off it was seen that the whole was absolutely riddled 

 by a white grub about a third of an inch in length. By-and-by a num- 

 ber of black Weevils appeared each about half an inch in length, » 

 which Mr. Murray described and figured under the name given 

 above. « The stems of the Zamia and Enceplialartos are composed 

 of a heart or core composed of reticulations of hard woody matter 

 with interstices filled up with cellular tissue very much as the struc- 

 ture of the rhizome of a Fern surrounded with a covering of large 

 scales more or less imbricated like the core of or Firtree or the fruit 

 of a pine apple. In the exterior lozenge shaped apophysis of thèse 

 scales in the attacked plants a small round hole is hère and there 

 to be observed — ; doubtless a door of exit made by the perfect insect 

 in coming out. It is too large to hâve been a door of entrance made 

 by the young larva and the texture of that part of the scale is appa- 

 rently too hard for its jaws. Inside I found grubs in ail stages, in 

 smaller numbers in the core of the stem but very abundant in and 

 about the scales. In pulling the scales asunder, the fat, well fed, 

 littie pig-like larvse dropped out in numbers from the holes or galle- 

 riesthey occupied.Their borings ran in every direction right through 

 scale after scale — after I had secured every visible grub and nothing 

 remained but a pile of apparently riddled empty scales I found that 

 almost every one of them contained either one or two grubs at work 

 well up in its interior. — The soft farinaceous-looking interior of the 

 scales of the Enceplialartos crumbles into a reddish granular débris 

 through which thèse larvae eat their way; and I see that they havea 

 way of backing a littie every now and then with the recurved hooks 

 in a vertical position which leads me to suppose, that their use is to 

 push back the débris behind them. They do not seem to be used in 

 assisting progression although no doubt they do give a leverage, 

 when applied against the walls of their borings, but the larvae do 

 not need any assistance of this kind. If laid on the table, notwith- 



