SNOUT-BEETLES OR WEEVILS. 131 



ilar larvee having been found by himself in company with the Brenthi- 

 ans, and which he conjectures to be those of the Strongylium tenuicolle, 

 Say. 



The Northern Brenthus is frequently found under the bark of different 

 kinds of oak, in an incipient state of decay, but the larvae are genuine 

 wood-borers penetrating into the heart wood, usually of dead, but some- 

 times of living trees. The beetles vary from one-third to two-thirds of 

 an inch in length. They are of a mahogony-brown color, with the elytra 

 deeply grooved, and marked with linear spots of a tawny-yellow color. 

 The male and female differ remarkably in the shape of the snout, as 

 shown in the accompanying figures. 



The species was first described by Drury from a small specimen, under 

 the name of Brenthus minutusy and it is now included in the sub-genus 

 Eupsalis of Lacordaire, which the author admits to be scarcely distinct 

 from Arrhenodes, Sch. It has usually been referred to under the ai^pro- 

 priate name of Brenthus (Arrhenodes) septentrionis, (or more i)roperly, 

 septentrionalis) of Herbst, which is equivalent to the common name of 

 the Northern Brenthus. 



Family LVIII. CURCULIONID^. 



This is the extensive family of snout-beetles, properly so called. The 

 statements made in describing the tribe of Ehynchophora, of which they 

 compose by far the larger -part, had reference chiefly to the Curcu- 

 lionidse, * and need not behete repeated. Their bodies are always of an 

 oval form, never being very much elongated or depressed. The snout 

 varies extremely, being sometimes short and broad, and sometimes as 

 long as the body and almost as slender as a hair. Their most important 

 organic character is the negative one o± the absence of the labrum and 

 the rudimental condition of the palpi. Like all the i)laut-eating Tetra- 

 mera their tarsi are clothed with a dense brush of short stiff hair on the 

 under side, and the last joint but one is strongly bilobed. Another very 

 distinctive character is the bent or elbowed form of the antennae, which 

 is caused by the first joint being much longer than the others, and form- 

 ing an angle with them. The antennse are almost always knobbed at 

 the end. The larvae are soft and white, slightly narrowed at each ex 

 tremity, and usually lying in a curved position. They are always desti- 

 tute of feet, but in their place we often find little elevations or papillae 

 which are sometimes surmounted by a coronet of fine bristles. They 

 always occupy the substance of plants, and therefore require but little 

 locomotion. Though they are emphatically the occupants of fruits and 



* Curculio was the ancient name of some kind of corn-worm. 



