194 BRITISH BEETLES, 



very closely allied. Lyprus, which is very attenuate, 

 and spider-like about the legs,, has but six joints to the 

 faniculus. 



In Litodactylus and its allies, all more or less attached 

 to water-plants (some even existing under water, in 

 Myriophyllum) , the rostrum is short and thick, the scu- 

 tellum inconspicuous, and the eyes large and promi- 

 nent ; and in Ceuthorhynchus, a very extensive genus of 

 small convex species, the rostrum is long, arched, and 

 slender, and received in repose only between the front 

 pair of legs, there being no groove for it in the meso- 

 sternum. Some of this genus (which is divided into 

 two sections, the first having the femora simple beneath, 

 whilst in the second they are toothed) are prettily varie- 

 gated with white scales ; others are metallic blue, or set 

 sparingly with short stiff bristles. 



Many of them are very abundant, and do considerable 

 damage to culinary vegetables, either as perfect insects 

 by piercing holes in them, or as larvae by forming 

 gall-like excrescences on their roots. As is frequently 

 the case, there is another genus (Ceuthorhynchideus) , 

 closely resembling this in which there are six instead of 

 seven joints to the funiculus. 



The CIONID.E have the antennae ten- or nine-jointed, 

 short, the funiculus composed of five joints, and the club 

 of three or four. They are all small ; and (except Me- 

 cinus, which is elongate and cylindrical) " squat " and 

 rounded. 



The species of Cionus are all beautifully variegated 

 they frequent Verbascum and its allies, often in grej 

 numbers, the different species sometimes occurring ii 

 company. Their larvae, which are small, convex, and 

 spotted, devour the entire parenchyma of the leaves, but 



