398 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



betes ! On dit que les loups ne se mangent pas entre eux. La Mante 

 n'a pas ce scrupule." The details of her conduct as related by him are 

 too horrible for translation. 1 



The Phasmidae, to which the walking sticks belong, are all wing- 

 less insects which mimic different kinds of twigs. They are slow 

 and deliberate in their movements; they also are camoufleurs, rely- 

 ing for protection upon their deceptive resemblance and in some 

 cases they emit an offensive repugnatorial spray. Unlike the man- 

 tids, they are exclusively herbivorous. 2 



Romdlea microptera, the giant grasshopper already mentioned, is 

 dimorphic in coloration. In the normal form the fore wings are 

 bright orange dotted with black and the hind wings crimson or rose 

 colored with a black border. The general color of the other form is 

 black or blackish. The female of this species is shown on plate 45, 

 figure 4, and the smaller-sized male on plate 44, figure 1Q. Mr. Cau- 

 dell has described the means by which these insects produce their 

 peculiar simmering noise, which he traces to certain spiracles on the 

 side of the thorax. 3 



BEETLES AND THEIR ALLIES. 



Among the most interesting Coleoptera of Paradise Ke} 7 identified 

 by the venerable entomologist, Mr. E. A. Schwarz, of the United 

 States National Museum, are Rhynchophorus cmentatus (pi. 45, 

 fig. 5), a large, black, weevil with two broad, dark red stripes on its 

 thorax, and decurved snout (which gives to the genus its name), and 

 antennae jointed like elbows and terminating in broad knobs. It is 

 allied to the genus Calandra and breeds in freshly cut or broken 

 palmettos. The adult insect uses its snout not only for feeding but 

 also for boring holes, into which it deposits its eggs. The larvae — 

 fleshy, footless grubs, with tubercules instead of legs, and thick, 

 horny, curved jaws — burrow through the freshly cut stumps and 

 when about to transform to the pupa stage they envelop themselves 

 in a cocoon of twisted fibers. This species, which has hitherto been 

 recorded but from few localities in the United States, was collected 

 in the Koyal Palm State Park on May 14, 1916, by Mr. T. E. Snyder, 

 of the Office of Forest Insects. 



Sharply contrasting with the above is the remarkably slender little 

 weevil, Brenthus anchorago (pi. 45, fig. 7). It has a smoothly pol- 

 ished, jet black head and thorax, and its wing cases, as seen under 

 the lens, are marked with deep parallel furrows composed of minute 

 punctures and ornamented with two longitudinal lines of straw color. 



1 See Fabre, J. H., Moeurs des Insectes; morceaux choisis extraits des Souvenirs en- 

 tomologiques, pp. 65-70. 



a See Caudell, A. N., Proc. U. S. National Museum, 2G : 863. 1903. 

 s See Caudell, A. N., Proc. U. S. National Museum, 26 : 796. 1903. 



