THE BBENTHIANS. 67 



way. They receive the above name from the shape of the 



beetles, which resembles that of a pear. Say's Apion, Apion 



Sayi * of Schonherr (Fig. 33), is a minute black 



species, not more than one tenth of an inch long, 



exclusive of the slender, sharp-pointed snout. Its 



grubs live in the pods of the common wild-indigo 



bush, Baptisia tinctoria, devouring the seeds. A 



smaller kind, somewhat like it, inhabits the pods 



and eats the seeds of the locust-tree, or Robinia 



pseudacada. 



Naturalists place here a little group of snout-beetles, called 

 BRENTHIDJS, or Brenthians, which differ entirely in their 

 forms from the other weevils, both in the beetle and grub 

 state. They have a long, narrow, and cylindrical body. 

 The snout projects from the head in a straight line with 

 the body, and varies in shape according to the sex of the 

 insect, and even in individuals of the same sex. In the 

 males it is broad and flat, sometimes as long as the thorax, 

 sometimes much shorter, and it is widened at the tip, where 

 are situated two strong nippers or upper jaws ; in the females 

 it is long, very slender, and not enlarged at the extremity, 

 and the nippers are not visible to the naked eye. The 

 feelers are too small to be seen. The antennae are short, 

 straight, slightly thickened towards the tip, and implanted 

 before the prominent eyes, on the middle of the snout in 

 the males, and at the base of it in the females. The legs 

 are short, the first pair being the largest, and the hindmost 

 unusually distant from the middle pair. These insects live 

 under the bark and in the trunks of trees, but very little 

 has been published respecting their habits ; and the only 

 description of their larvae that has hitherto appeared is con- 

 tained in my first Report on the Insects of Massachusetts, 

 printed in the year 1838, in the seventy-second number of 

 the " Documents of the House of Representatives." 



The only beetle of this family known in the New England 



* Apion rostrum, Say. 



