Scolytidee.]} RHYNCHOPHORA. 401 
The larve are white or yellowish-white, fleshy, grubs and are very 
closely allied to those of the ordinary Rhynchophora; in fact they cannot 
be distinguisbed from them by any really trustworthy characters (v. 
Perris, Larves des Coléoptéres, p. 412, and Chapuis and Candéze, Cat. des 
Larves des Coléoptéres, p. 228); the only differences are those pointed out 
by Erichson, who remarks that the head is a little longer and stronger 
and the mandibles a little longer ; these differences, however, are slight 
and may of course be accounted for by their habits, on the principle of 
Natural Selection ; the integument, moreover, is stouter and more or less 
shrivelled into rugose folds (étiolé) ; the head is of a paler colour; the 
body is cylindrical with the posterior extremity obtuse ; the thoracic 
segments are larger and the anal aperture is in the form of an X and 
bears no appendage serving for locomotion ; in most, if not in all cases, 
there are no legs; this character used to be regarded as a distinctive one 
between the Rhynchophora and the Lawmellicornia, Ptinide and 
Bostrychidz, but cannot now be regarded as of so much importance, as 
certain of the Rhynchophorous larve have been found to possess more or 
less developed legs. 
The larve of the Scolytide bear a strong resemblance to one another, 
and, with the exception of Platypus, which is a little abnormal, they do 
not require separate notice ; many of them, however, may be recognized 
by their habits, and especially by the shape and nature of their galleries. 
The following general description of the life history of the Scolytide 
has been kindly communicated to me by Mr. W. F. Blandford, who is 
doing very good work at the group ; and I would here take the oppor- 
tunity of thanking him very much for many valuable notes regarding the 
family, which I have embodied in the descriptions that follow :— 
‘In the fact that the female enters the plant or trunk to lay her eggs 
the Scolytide differ from all other Rhynchophora, by which the eggs are 
deposited from the outside. 
“The process of establishing a brood begins in every case by the 
formation of a vertical entrance-hole through the bark, which in the 
wood-boring forms is continued deeply into the tree, but which in the 
bark-feeding species only reaches at most the surface of the wood. 
“To begin with the latter: The entrance-hole is usually gnawed by 
the mother ; but some species are polygamous and in these the male 
performs the operation. He then hollows out a small irregular eavity— 
the brood-chamber—and thither certain females betake themselves, and 
after impregnation commence the ‘ mother galleries’ at the junction of 
wood and bast ; in the monogamous species the female is fertilized in 
the entrance-passage or just outside it. 
“From the termination of the entrance-hole the ‘mother galleries’ 
run—sometimes two in number ; in the polygamous species they form a 
star-shaped system radiating from the brood-chamber. The eggs are laid 
alternately on the right and left of the galleries in small excavations 
from which the larval galleries start. Occasionally they are laid in a 
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