COLEOPTERA. 81 



The abdomen is bulky in most of them, the antennse geniculate, 

 and frequently clavate. The penultimate joint of the tarsi is almost 

 always bilobate. The posterior thighs are dentated in several. 



The larvae have an oblong body, and resemble a small, very soft, 

 Avliite worm ; their head is squamous, and they are destitute of feet, 

 or in lieu of them there are merely small mammillae. They gnaw 

 various parts of plants. Several live exclusively in the interior of 

 their fruit or seeds, and frequently do us much injury. Their chry- 

 salides are enclosed in a shell. Many of the Rhynchophora, when 

 very abundant within certain limits, are even very noxious in their 

 perfect state. They tap the buds or leaves of various cultivated 

 vegetables, useful or necessary to man, and feed on their parenchyma. 



In some the labrum is apparent, the anterior elongation of their 

 head short, broad, depressed, and in the form of a snout; the palpi 

 are very visible and filiform, or larger at the extremity. They com- 

 pose the genus 



Bruchus, Lin., 



Which are subdivided as follows : — 



Those species in which the antennae are clavate, or very evidently 

 larger at the extremity, where the eyes are unemarginated, and where 



straight or geniculate, into two great sections, the Recficornes or Orthocern, and the 

 Fract iconics or Gonatocera. The anatomical observations of M. Leon Dufotir seem 

 to strengthen this distinction. The latter are furnished with salivary vessels, while 

 in the former they are wanting. These form four tribes, the Briicheles, the Anthri- 

 hides, the Attelabides, and the Brentidcs. The labrum and palpi are very visible in the 

 two first ; these palpi are filiform or larger at the extremity ; they are very small and 

 conical in the two other tribes, as in all the following Rhynchophora. The Fracti- 

 cornes form a fifth tribe, that of the Cucurlionites. They are divided into the Brevi- 

 rostres and Longirostres, thereby indicating the insertion of their antennre. In the 

 former, these organs, at their origin, are even with the base of the mandibles, and 

 behind or nearer the head in the other. The genera of the Brevirostres are arranged 

 in three sub-tribes, viz. the Paclvjrhyncides, Brachycerides, and Liparides, which cor- 

 respond to the genera Curculio, Bruchyccrus, and Liparus of Olivier ; the last also 

 comprises some of his Lixi. The relative size and form of the mentum, the mandi- 

 bles, the presence or absence of wings, the direction of the lateral sulci of the pro- 

 boscis, or rather of the proboscis-snout (museau-trompe), where the first joint of 

 the antennfe is partly lodged, the length of that joint, the proportions and forms of 

 the thorax, and other very secondary considerations, furnish the characters of these 

 various groups. The Cucurlionites Longirostres are divided into two principal sec- 

 tions from their habits, and the composition of tlifir antennae. In the Phillophagi, 

 they consist of ten joints at least, and the three last, at least, form the club which 

 terminates them. Those of the Spermafophagi present at most but nine joints, of 

 ■which the last, or two last at most, constitute the club. The legs of the Phyllo- 

 phagi are sometimes contiguous at their origin, and sometimes remote. Those in 

 which they touch are divided into four tribes: the Lixides (Lixus, Fab.), the Rhyn- 

 chanides (Rhynchseus, Oliv.), Cionides (Clonus, Clairv.), and the Orcheslides (Or- 

 chestes, lUig.). The Spermatophagi are divided into three principal sections, or sub- 

 tribes, the Calandrceidcs (Calandra, Clairv., Fab.), the Cossomides (Cossomus, 

 Clairv.), and the Drynpthorides (Dryopthorus, Schoenh. — Bulbifer, Dej.). These lat- 

 ter lead to the Hylesimi, Fab., and other Xylophagi. 



