Beetles 295 



The scarred snout-beetles, Otiorhynchidae, get their vernacular name 

 from the presence of a distinct little scar on the front aspect of each mandible. 

 It is made by the falling off of a mandibular appendage present in the pupa. 

 Most of these beetles are covered with minute scales, much like those of the 

 moths and butterflies, which give them often a bright metallic coloration. 

 Several species of the family are injurious to fruits. 



The imbricated snout-beetle, Epiccerus imbricatus, $ inch long, dull 

 silvery white with darker markings, and with the elytra with longitudinal 

 lines of deep pits, has the posterior ends of the elytra very steep and cut off 

 almost squarely and ending in a pointed process. It feeds on various culti- 

 vated plants, as garden vegetables, strawberries, etc., and gnaws holes in 

 the twigs and fruits of apple and cherry. The pitchy-legged weevil, 

 Otiorhynchus ovalus, \ inch long, dark brown to black with deeply pitted 

 thorax and striated elytra, with deep punctures in the striae, almost egg- 

 shaped hind body, and thorax with projecting angle on each side, attacks the 

 roots and crowns of strawberry-plants, and also the leaves of apple-trees. 

 Fuller's rose-beetle, Aramiges julleri, is perhaps the most familiar species 

 of this family, as it attacks garden and conservatory roses, and in Cali- 

 fornia is an orange pest of some note. It is J inch long, oval, smoky-brown, 

 and thinly covered with scales; its "snout" is short and obtuse. The eggs 

 are laid in masses in concealed places on rose-bushes, 

 the larvae feeding on the roots of the bushes, while the 

 adults attack the leaves, buds, and flowers. The beetles 

 hide during the day on the under side of the leaves, 

 and can readily be collected and destroyed. 



The Curculionidae, the typical curculios and weevils, 

 compose the largest and most important family of the 

 suborder, comprising over 600 species of North Amer- 

 ican beetles, and including many seriously destructive 



pests. Such enemies of the fruit-grower as the plum- 



,. , FIG. 404. The chest- 



curcuho, plum-gouger, apple-weevil, and strawberry- nut-weevil, Balani- 



weevil, and such a destructive pest of cotton as the nus caryatrypes. 

 boll-weevil (for the study and combating of which ^S^Sf?^ **** 

 Congress has recently appropriated $250,000), are alone 

 sufficient to give this family a high rank in the list of notorious insect 

 pests. The eggs of Curculionids are laid singly in holes bored or cut by 

 the female with her snout in stems or fruits of the food-plant and pushed 

 to the bottom by the snout, which is therefore often very long and slender. 

 The nut- and acorn-weevils of the genus Balaninus are characterized by 

 their possession of an unusually long, slender, curving beak (Fig. 404) ; in 

 the females this beak may be twice as long as the rest of the body; in the 

 males it is usually about the length of the body. These beetles are from 



