250 RUYNCHOPHORA. : | Liparus. 
small patches of the same scattered over the elytra ; vertex of head finely 
punctured, rostrum more strongly punctured, antenne black ;_ thorax 
with the sides rounded, broadest about middle and narrowed in front, 
distinctly punctured, the punctuation consisting of larger and smaller 
punctures intermingled ; elytra large and ample, coriaceous, without definite 
rows of punctures ; legs black, femora with small teeth. L. 15-16 mm. 
Chalky places ; under stones and in moss; very local and usually rare; Maidstone; 
near Staple, Kent (H. S. Gorham); Sandgate; Dover; Hythe (in numbers in a 
sandy wood, T, H. Hart, 1878) ; Foikestone ; it appears to be entirely confined to the 
South Eastern counties. 
CURCULIO, Linné (Hylobius, Schonherr). 
This genus contains about thirty species, of which about ten occur 
in Enrope, and the remainder have a wide range, representatives having 
been described from Siberia, Persia, North and South America, New 
Holland, Java, &c. ; our single species lives in the larval state in stumps 
and fallen trunks of various pine and fir trees ; the larva, however, of 
C. transversovittatus, one of the species found in France (of which a 
full description will be foundin Bedel’s Rhynchophora, pp. 93-95) lives 
in the roots of Lythrum salicaria ; C. abietis, unfortunately, does not 
confine itself to fallen and decaying limbs ; it is occasionally extremely 
injurious to Scotch fir, spruce, larch, and other Coniferwe, a full account 
of the habits of the beetle and suggestions as to remedies will be found 
given by Miss Ormerod (Manual of Injurious Insects, pp. 233, &c.) ; the 
bectles feed on the tender bark of young shoots; they mainly attack 
young trees, especially plantations formed on ground from which a crop 
of old fir has recently been removed, and eat away the bark of the stems, 
sometimes completely stripping them upwards. They also eat the bark 
of the shoots and destroy the bud; and, in the larch, they gnaw at 
the base of the leaves so as to render the shoots bare. The females 
deposit their eggs, which are transparent and whitish, in rifts of the 
bark, in logs, root stocks, stumps of felled trees, and on exposed parts of 
roots ; the maggots hatch in two or three weeks, and may be found from 
June onwards throughout the winter ; they do not call for any particular 
remark, as they closely resemble the ordinary weevil maggots, except 
that the thoracic segments are somewhat swollen; these maggots bore 
into the soft wood beneath the bark, and when full fed they change to 
the pupa state in a cocoon-like accumulation of chips at one end of the 
boring. 
The chief method of prevention is to look carefully to the ground on 
which young trees are planted; all chips and old wood should be burnt 
and no logs should be left about, unless used as traps ; fragments of 
roots left in the ground should be covered by at least six inches of earth ; 
laying pieces of bark as traps and carefully examining them, especially 
after dull weather or during soft rain, will often cause numbers to be 
captured in infested places, and traps formed of logs and twigs, if care- 
