382 RHYNCHOPHORA. [ Baris. 
plants; according to M. Perris it is attached to Glauwx and Salicornia; June to 
August ; extremely local; the species was first discovered in Britain by Mr. 
Champion at Sheerness in June, 1871, and both he and Mr. J. J. Walker have since 
captured it in numbers in the same locality ; it has not, however, been hitherto met 
with in any other part of the country. 
BALANINA. 
The members of this tribe, which contains the single genus Balaninus 
(divided by some authors into two, Balaninus and Balanobius), are dis- 
tinguished not only from all the other Rhynchophora, but from all 
known Coleoptera by the fact that the mandibles have a vertical instead 
of a horizontal motion ; they are also remarkable for their very long 
slender rostrum, which varies in length, but is sometimes longer than 
the whole of the rest of the body; the length of the rostrum enables the 
insects to pierce the thick husks, or surrounding pulps, of the nuts or 
kernels of fruits in which they lay their eggs (walnuts, chestnuts, beech- 
nuts, hickory-nuts, filberts, sloes, &c.) ; the following characters of the 
tribe may also be noticed :—antenne long and slender, usually inseited 
a little before the middle in the male, and at or behind the middle in the 
female, with seven-jointed funiculus of which the penultimate joints are 
variable in length in different species ; eyes large, rather flat ; prosternum 
long in front of anterior coxz, which are contiguous ; thorax not or only 
slightly constricted at apex; scutellum very distinct ; elytra narrowed 
behind ; abdomen with the first segment longer than the second ; inter- 
mediate coxee moderately distant, posterior cox widely distant ; legs 
rather long, femora usually, but not always, toothed ; tarsi dilated, claws 
toothed or appendiculate. 
BALANINUWS, Germar. 
This genus contains about fifty species which are very widely dis- 
tributed, representatives having been described from North and South 
America, South Africa and Madagascar and the Australian region ; 
eighteen occur in Europe, of which ten belong to Balaninus proper and 
eight to the sub-genus Balanobius, Jekel, which cannot, however, be 
well regarded as distinct ; the larve are small fat white grubs witha 
dark or yellowish head, and strong mandibles, and do not call for any 
particular description ; that of B. nucum is well known to the most 
casual observer as it is the maggot that we so often find in filberts and 
other nuts; B. venosus and B. turbatus in like manner attack acorns, 
B. betulee (cerasorum) lays its eggs in the kernel of Prunus spinosa (the 
common sloe) and B. elephas, which is not found in Britain, in chest- 
nuts ; the insects appear to bore a hole into the kernel during the early 
development of the nut or fruit and there deposit an egg ; this happens 
in early summer or as soon as the nuts or fruits have become set ; the 
larva hatches and continues feeding until autumn, when the nuts or 
