132 THE ORDER OF COLEOPTERA. 



fruit-like galls, yet there is no part of a plant which is not inhabited by 

 the larvjTB of some one or other of their numerous species. 



The snout-beetles consequently furnish a greater number of species 

 which are injurious to the agriculturist than any other family of beetles. 

 In depositing their eggs the females first puncture a hole with their 

 snouts, then drop an egg at the aperture, and lastly with the aid of the 

 proboscis push the egg to the bottom of the cavity. In harmony with 

 this mode of egg-deposit is the organic character observed in many spe- 

 cies, of the female having a proboscis considerably longer than that of the 

 male ; of which our Apple-curculio {AntJionomus 4:-gibbus) furnishes an 

 example. * 



The classification of the Curculionidie, on account of their great num- 

 bers and the small size of the great majority of them, taken in connec- 

 tion with the rudimental state of some of the organs, namely, the labrum 

 and the palpi, which, in other insects, often furnish valuable generic 

 characters, presents a difiicult study which will tax both the patience 

 and the ingenuity of the student. 



They are divided primarily into two large sections, according to the 

 length of the rostrum or snout, and the point of insertion of the anten- 

 Tue, and designated as the Brevirostres or short-snouted Curculios, and 

 the Longirostres or long-snouted Curculios. These sections not being 

 .sharply separated from each other in nature, Lacordaire has adopted, 

 as the basis of the primary division of the Curculionidae, the relative 

 position of certain parts of the mouth ; but these parts are often so 

 minute and obscure that the characters derived from them are very difli- 



* In a paper on the systematic value of the Rhynchophora, read before the National Academy of 

 Sciences, at Washington, Jan. 24, 1867, Dr. LeConte adduces this habit of the Curculiouidw of pushing 

 their ova into the cavities prepared for tliem by means of the rostrum or beak, as an evidence of det;- 

 radation or inferiority of type. " It was reserved," he says, "for the Rhynchophora to exhibit a degi-a- 

 dation of type, by which a function, peculiarly appropriate to the posterior extremity of the body, is 

 performed by the head : the elongated beak becoming in fact the ovipositor." 



Dr. George H. Horn, in an article upon the Curculionidii?, contributed to the American Philosophical 

 Society, Sept. 19, 1873, in describing the species of the genus Balaninus, states that the females have a 

 slender ovipositor, which they are capable of extending to half the length of their bodies, and that he 

 possesses a specimen with the ovipositor protruded, and an egg seized by its tip. From this he infers 

 that the B;ilanini, and probably other CurculionidiC also, use their beaks only to make the iierforation 

 into which the egg is to be deposited, but that the act of inserting the egg is done in the ordinary way 

 by the ovipositor. 



The fact, however, that many, (if not all) of the Longirostres, or long-snouted Curculios, use their 

 beaks to force their ova to the bottom of the cavities prepared for them, is too well attested to admit 

 of (juestion. Several species of Ehyuchites and Aiithonomus are described as thus ovipositing, in Kol- 

 lar's Treatise,, (page 238, et. seq.); and the common Plum-curculio, (Conotva<ihehis nenuphar), is known 

 to practice the same method. (See Practical Entomologist, vol. 2, page 115.) 



But the argument above stated to prove the relative inferiority of the Rhynchophora, appears to me 

 more fanciful than real. The great majority of Coleoptera have neither beak nor ovipositor, and simpl 

 deposit their eggs upon the surface of the substances upon which, or within which, their larva; are to 

 reside. The additional precautions taken by the Rhynchophora to ensure the preservation of theii- 

 eggs and the welfare of their oftspring, would seem to furnish a more certain proof of superiority of 

 instinct, than of any systematic degi-adation. 



