6 WHEAT CHAFEK. 



Oblong, very convex, shining black, the under side, 

 antenna and legs piceous. The head is short and broad, 

 closely rugulose, except at the base, where it is smooth ; 

 it has a fine transverse ridge in front, which curves 

 inwardly on each side and joins the inner margin of the 

 eyes ; the margin of the clypeus is slightly reflexed and 

 forms two obtuse points at the apex. The thorax is 

 nearly twice as broad as long, with the sides and basal 

 angles rounded and the anterior angles acute, the surface 

 is without any punctuation, and there is a fine impressed 

 marginal line at the sides and in front. The scutellum 

 is broader than long, triangular, and smooth. The elytra 

 have seven impressed longitudinal rows of punctures, the 

 first, next the suture, is straight, the others are a little 

 oblique ; in some specimens the interstices have a few 

 irregular punctures, and there is often an additional 

 short row near the shoulder ; the apex is coarsely punc- 

 tured, and there is an impressed marginal line at the 

 sides. The pygidium is very convex and smooth. The 

 under surface has sparse brown hairs, and is punctured 

 at the sides ; the metasternum has a longitudinal im- 

 pression in the centre. The legs are thick, with the tarsi 

 slender, the anterior tibiae have two strong teeth on the 

 outer side, and the apex, rather obtuse, the middle and 

 hinder tibiae have two transverse ridges, which, as well 

 as the apex, are spinose. The length of the body is 

 1215 millm. 



In general appearance this species somewhat resembles 

 our common Apkodius fossor, but is rather larger ; it 

 belongs, however, to a quite distinct family, of which no 

 member occurs in Britain. 0. E. J. 



Miss Glanville's notes referring to this beetle state 

 that it is the most wide- spread and destructive of the 

 pests forwarded, and that it is a subterraneous worker, 

 attacking the wheat by eating away the roots. It is said 

 that it never attacks grain sown in ground newly broken 

 up, even though it be within a yard of their old scene of 

 Operations. The ground must have been cultivated two 



