54 



THE YOUNG COLLECTOR'S 



in the young fruit. The larva eats its way out in three or four 

 weeks, and forms its pupa in the ground. It is, however, too 

 scarce an insect in England to be very destructive. There are 

 several other species of the genus, some of which injure fruit in 

 the same way, and others feed on the leaves of various trees, 

 sometimes rolling them together, and laying an egg in them, and 

 sometimes injuring a young shoot till it withers, and then laying 

 an egg in the pith. 



'Balaninas Nucum (the Nut Weevil), belonging to the family 

 Erirhinid<e t is a black beetle about a quarter of an inch long, 

 with dull red legs, and a long proboscis or rostrum, thick at the 

 base, near which the antennae are placed. It springs from the 

 white larva that we so often find in nuts, especially filberts ; but 

 it will also attack acorns, and there are several 

 allied species which will likewise feed on both 

 fruits. 



Cryptorhynchus Lapathi, typical of the family 

 CryptorhynckuUf % is a larger beetle, one-third of 

 an inch in length, with a shorter and more 

 gradually formed rostrum. It is a convex, dull 

 black insect, with the sides of the thorax, the 

 base, and nearly half the extremity of the elytra, 

 and the femora, thickly scaled with white. Its 

 black and white colouring makes it rather a 

 conspicuous insect. The beetle lays its eggs in 

 May on young willows, and the larva feeds on 

 the pith. The beetle appears in autumn, and lives through 

 the winter. 



The Scolytida are the most destructive 

 of all the wood-feeding beetles, for their 

 larvae gnaw long galleries through and 

 through the trunks of trees, and speedily 

 destroy them. They have scarcely any 

 rostrum, and their antennae are short 

 and clubbed. Hylesinus Piniperda is a 

 black or brown insect, about one-sixth 

 of an inch in length ; the antennae and 

 legs are reddish. The beetle and its 

 larva may be found beneath the bark of 

 different kinds of fir almost all the year 

 round. Scolytus Destructor, which 

 Hylesinus Piniperda. f <fjs on elm, is perhaps the best known 



(Mag.) of this family. 



The Longicornia, or Long-horned Beetles, may be known at 



*>torhynchus 



.apathi. 



(Mag.) 



