COLEOPTERA. ATTELABIDES. 337 



These insects sometimes commit much mischief, especially when 

 they happen to occur in great quantities : this is occasionally the 

 case with the beautiful (but in this country very rare) llhynchites 

 Bacclius, which sometimes abounds to so great an extent in the 

 vineyards on the Continent, where it is called La beche, Lisette, i!vc., 

 that the local authorities are occasionally compelled to issue orders for 

 their destruction by the inhabitants, under fixed penalties. The 

 perfect insect attacks the young buds and leaves, the juices of which 

 it extracts with its rostrum, causing the leaf to roll up ; and sub- 

 sequently depositing its eggs in the retreat thus formed, which it 

 previously lines with silk, so that a place of safety, as well as an 

 ample supply of food, is provided for the larva as soon as it is dis- 

 closed : the vines are sometimes entirely defoliated in consequence of 

 these attacks. The same insect is also stated to bore into the stone 

 of the cherry, &c., while young and soft, depositing an egg in the 

 centre. Mr. Marsham once found it in profusion upon the Prunus 

 spinosus at Dartford. According to M. Kollar, however, R. Bacchus, 

 in Austria, appears to be more generally destructive to the young and 

 tender fruit of the apple, whilst R. cupreus attacks the young fruit of 

 plum and some other trees, and R. alliarioa the young shoots and grafts 

 of various fruit trees. (Nafiirff. der SchacU. Insecten. Wien, 1837.) 



The Rhynchites Betulae also appears (from a notice in the Bull, 

 des. Sc. Nat., February, 1S2G) to be injurious to the vine. See also 

 Baron Walckenaer's interesting memoir on the insects which attack 

 the vine (A?m. Soc. Ent. Frcmc, 1836, p. 242.), and a memoir 

 entitled Des Insectes essentiellcment nuisibles a la Vignc, upon the 

 larvae of Rhynchites in the Observatio7is sur la Physique et V Hist. 

 Nat. de Rozier, July, 1771. 



Several species of the extensive genus Apion (so named from the 

 pear-shaped body) are found upon various species of clover (Trifo- 

 lium), to which they do much mischief, by devouring the seed. Thus, 

 Apion flavifemoratum attacks the pur})le clover, and A. flavipes the 

 Dutch, or white, clover. (See the memoirs of Messrs. Markwick, 

 Marsham, and Lehmann, in the sixth volume of the Linncean Trans- 

 actions.) I have found another common indigenous species, A. 

 radiolum (which ordinarily inhabits the Malva sylvestris), undergoing 

 its transformations in considerable numbers in the stems of the 

 hollyhock, and arriving at the perfect state in the month of October. 

 De Gcer has given the history of a weevil, wliich appears to belong 



7. 



