34-1' MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



history has been detailed by Mr, W. Curtis, in the first volume of the 

 Linncean Trans. {See,aho,L,o\\donsA7'boretumBritannicu?n, p. HTO.) 

 According' to Lister, this insect emits a querulous noise when 

 alarmed. (Dc Scar. Brit. Jpp. Hist. Ins. Rati.} This noise is pro- 

 duced by rubbing the base of the prothorax against the narrowed front 

 part of the mesothorax. Some interesting observations upon its habits 

 will also be found in Hewitt's book of the Seasons. 



The species of Hylobius are often very injurious in pine forests, 

 completely destroying the young trees. Mr. W. S. MacLeay has 

 published some observations upon their ravages in some of the fir 

 plantations of Scotland in the Zool. Journ. vol. i. (See, also, Arbo- 

 retum Brifannicnm, p. 2141.) Fortunately, they are of rare occurrence 

 in this country. Dr. Ratzeburg has given an account of the injuries 

 committed by the same insect, with figures of its different states, in his 

 Forst-Tnsecten., col. t. 4. f. 11. He has also given similar illustrations 

 of the following species of weevils, all of which are more or less in- 

 jurious to timber trees : Thamnophilus violaceus, Otiorhynchus ater ; 

 Pissodes notatus, Picea?, and Hercynia:; ; and Brachyonyx indigena. 



Dr. Heer has published a detailed description and figures of the 

 larva and pupa of Pissodes Piceas ////y., which attacks the trunks of the 

 Pinus Picea. In its preparatory states, it does not materially differ 

 from the other larvas and pupae of this family. (^Observ. Entom. 18,'56, 

 tab. iv. B.) From an extract from a provincial periodical, communi- 

 cated to me by Mr. Denson, it would appear that the splendid Aus- 

 tralian Chrysolophus spectabilis undergoes its transformations in tlie 

 heart of cedar trees, a living specimen having been cut out of a plank 

 in this country. 



Professor Peck has also published an account of the injuries caused 

 to the cherry in America by Rhynchajnus (Pissodes) Strobi, in the 

 jSIassachusetts Agricult. Repository , Dec. 1816, and which has been re- 

 published, without the accompanying plate, in the Zool. .Journal, vol. ii. 



Some of the most destructive species of the family belong to the 

 genus Otiorhynchus. I am indebted to the late A. H. Haworth, Esq., 

 for an opportunity of investigating the habits and transformations of 

 Ot. sulcatus (yfig. 41. 7. ; 41. 8. head of ditto), which annually caused 

 him much damage, by destroying many of his out-door plants in pots. 

 We found many of the larvre {^fig. 41. 9. magnified ; 41. lo. its head, 

 the mentum and labium extending beyond the ciliated labrum), in the 

 month of December, at the roots of a species of Sedum, several being 



