250 RUYNCHOPHOEA. [Liparus. 



small patches of the same scattered over the elytra ; vertex of head finely 

 punctured, rostrum more strongly punctured, antenna: black ; thorax 

 with the sides rounded, broadest about middle and narrowed in front, 

 distinctly punctured, the punctuation consisting of larger and smaller 

 punctures intermingled; elytra large and ample, coriaceous, without definite 

 rows of punctures ; legs black, femora with small teeth. L. 15-16 mm. 



Chalky places ; under stones and in rnoss ; very local and usually rare ; Maidstone; 

 near Staple, Kent (H. S. Gorbam) ; Sandgate; Dover; Hythe (in numbers in a 

 sandy wood, T. H. Hart, 1878) ; Folkestone ; it appears to be entirely confined to tbe 

 Soutb Eastern counties. 



CURCUIiIO, Linne (Hylobius, Schonherr). 



This genus contains about thirty species, of which about ten occur 

 in Europe, and the remainder have a wide range, representatives having 

 been described from Siberia, Persia, North and South America, New 

 Holland, Java, &c. ; our single species lives in the larval state in stumps 

 and fallen trunks of various pine and fir trees ; the larva, however, of 

 C. tramversovittatus, one of the species found in France (of which a 

 full description will be found in Bedel's Rhynchophora, pp. 93-95) lives 

 in the roots of Ly thrum salicaria ; C. alieiis, unfortunately, does not 

 confine itself to fallen and decaying limbs ; it is occasionally extremely 

 injurious to Scotch fir, spruc^, larch, and other Conifene; a full account 

 of the habits of the beetle and suggestions as to remedies will be found 

 given by MissOrmerod (Manual of Injurious Insects, pp. 233, &c.) ; the 

 beetles feed on the tender bark of young shoots ; they mainly attack 

 young trees, especially plantations formed on ground from which a crop 

 of old fir has recently been removed, and eat away the bark of the stems, 

 sometimes completely stripping them upwards. They also eat the bark 

 of the shoots and destroy the bud ; and, in the larch, they gnaw at 

 the base of the leaves so as to render the shoots bare. The females 

 deposit their eggs, which are transparent and whitish, in rit'ts of the 

 bark, in logs, root stocks, stumps of felled trues, and on exposed parts of 

 roots ; the maggots hatch in two or three weeks, and may be found from 

 June onwards throughout the winter ; they do not call for any particular 

 remark, as they closely resemble the ordinary weevil maggots, except 

 that the thoracic segments are somewhat swollen ; these maggots bore 

 into the soft wood beneath the bark, and when full fed they change to 

 the pupa state in a cocoon-like accumulation of chips at one end of the 

 boring. 



The chief method of prevention is to look carefully to the ground on 

 which young trees are planted ; all chips and old wood should be burnt 

 and no logs should be left about, unless used as traps ; fragments of 

 roots left in the ground should be covered by at least six inches of earth ; 

 laying pieces of bark as traps and carefully examining them, especially 

 after dull weather or during soft rain, will often cause numbers to be 

 captured in infested places, and traps formed of logs and twigs, if care- 



