180 BRITISH BEETLES. 



in woods in early summer. Attelabus curculionides , the 

 shorter, more convex and smooth of the two, infests 

 young oaks; its female rolling up their leaves into a 

 thimble-like mass, in which she deposits her eggs. Apo- 

 derus coryli is found on hazel ; its larva, conspicuous in 

 this section for the possession of large dorsal tubercles, 

 living in cylindrically rolled-up leaves of that plant. 



The RHINOMACERID^E have the rostrum elongate, 

 slender, and enlarged in front ; its scrobes linear, super- 

 ficial, and reaching to the base ; the club of the antennae 

 elongate, with the joints more or less loosely articulated ; 

 the segments of the abdomen free ; the tibiae not spurred 

 at the apex, and the hooks of the tarsi bifid or free. 



Some of these insects are exceedingly beautiful, having 

 the brightest metallic hues of blue, golden, green, red, 

 or copper, and many are very pubescent. 



Rhynchites betultti, a very lovely species, found not 

 uncommonly at Darenth on the hazel, pierces the top 

 shoots of that plant so as to arrest their growth, after 

 having deposited an egg in them. Other species have 

 been observed to lay an egg in the recently-formed 

 fruit of wild trees, afterwards duly making an incision 

 below, so as to impede its proper development, the 

 larva finding sufficient nourishment before the fruit falls 

 to the ground. R. cequatus (Plate XI, Fig. 5) is occa- 

 sionally found in profusion in the flowers of the white- 

 thorn. 



Rhinomacer attelaboldes somewhat resembles certain 

 species of SaJpingus in the Heteromera. M. Perris has 

 observed that its female deposits her eggs in the catkins 

 of the male flowers of the pine, of which the presence ol 

 the larva prevents the expansion. This species is found 

 not uncommonly in certain parts of Scotland ; it fre- 



