COLEOPTERA. 83 



small, hardly perceptible to the naked eye, and conical ; the anterior 

 prolongation of their head resembles a rostrum or proboscis. 



Sometimes the antennae are at once straight, inserted on the ros- 

 trum, and consist of nine or ten joints. 



Tliose, in which the three or four last joints are united into a club, 

 form tlie genus 



Attelabus, Lin., and more partictdarly of Fab. — Becmares, 

 Geoff. 



They attack the leaves or most tender parts of plants. Most of the 

 females roll up these leaves into a tube or cornet, in which they de- 

 posit their eggs, thus preparing a domicil for their young ones, which 

 also furnishes them with food. 



The proportions of the rostrum, the manner in which it termi- 

 nates, as well as the tibise and form of the abdomen, have given rise 

 to the four following subgenera : Apodkrus, Attelabus, Rhyn- 

 CHiTEs, and Apion. The lirst is the most distinct. The head of 

 these Insects is narrowed posteriorly, or presents a sort of neck, and 

 is united to the thorax by a kind of rotula. Their snout is short, 

 thick, and widened at the end, a character common to Attelabus, 

 properly so called, but where the head, as in the two other subge- 

 nera, is received into the thorax up to the eyes. Here the snout is 

 elongated into the form of a proboscis. In Rhynchites, it is some- 

 what widened at the end, and the abdomen is almost square. 



R. Bacc/ms, Herbst. ; 01iv.,Col. V, 81,ii, 27. Cupreous-red 

 and pubescent; antennae and extremity of the proboscis black. 



The larva of this species lives in the rolled leaves of the 

 Vine, from which, in certain seasons, and when unusually nu- 

 merous, they sometimes completely strip the foliage. They 

 are known in some parts of France, by the names of Lisette, 

 Beche, &c. 



The snout in Apion is not widened at the end, and even frequently 

 terminates in a point. The abdomen is strongly inflated.* 



The following genera have been formed with Rhynchophora, very 

 similar to the Attelabi, but with a narrower and more elongated 

 body. 



Rhinotia, Kirb. — Belus, Schoenh., 



Where the antennae gradually enlarge without forming a club, and 

 the body is almost linear f . 



EuRHiNus, Kirb., 



Where they terminate in an elongated club, of which the last joint 

 is very long in the males];. 



* Sec Lat., Gener. Crust, et Insect. ; Herbstcin, Olivier, and Schoenherr. 

 t Kirby, Lin. Trans.. XII. 

 I Kirby, Ibid. 



