382 RHYNOHOPHORA. [Bans. 



plants; according to M. Ferris it is attached to Glaux and Salicornia; June to 

 August ; extremely local ; the species was first discovered in Britain by Mr. 

 Champion at Sheerness in June, 1871, and both he and Mr. J. J. Walker have since 

 captured it in numbers in the same locality ; it has not, however, been hitherto met 

 with in any other part of the country. 



BALANINA. 



The members of this tribe, which contains the single genus Balaninus 

 (divided by some authors into two, Balaninus and Balanobius), are dis- 

 tinguished not only from all the other Rhynchophora, but from all 

 known Coleoptera by the fact that the mandibles have a vertical instead 

 of a horizontal motion ; they are also remarkable for their very long 

 slender rostrum, which varies in length, but is sometimes longer than 

 the whole of the rest of the body ; the length of the rostrum enables the 

 insects to pierce the thick husks, or surrounding pulps, of the nuts or 

 kernels of fruits in which they lay their eggs (walnuts, chestnuts, beech- 

 nuts, hickory-nuts, filberts, sloes, &c.) ; the following characters of the 

 tribe may also be noticed : antennae long and slender, usually insetted 

 a little before the middle in the male, and at or behind the middle in the 

 female, with seven- jointed funiculus of which the penultimate joints are 

 variable in length in different species ; eyes large, rather flat ; prosternum 

 long in front of anterior coxae, which are contiguous ; thorax not or only 

 slightly constricted at apex ; scutellum very distinct ; elytra narrowed 

 behind ; abdomen with the first segment longer than the second ; inter- 

 mediate coxae moderately distant, posterior coxae widely distant ; legs 

 rather long, femora usually, but not always, toothed ; tarsi dilated, claws 

 toothed or appendiculate. 



BALANINUS, Germar. 



This genus contains about fifty species which are very widely dis- 

 tributed, representatives having been described from North and South 

 America, South Africa and Madagascar and the Australian region ; 

 eighteen occur in Europe, of which ten belong to Balaninus proper and 

 eight to the sub-genus Balanobius, Jekel, which cannot, however, be 

 well regarded as distinct ; the larvae are small fat white grubs with a 

 dark or yellowish head, and strong mandibles, and do not call for any 

 particular description ; that of B. nucum is well known to the most 

 casual observer as it is the maggot that we so often find in filberts and 

 other nuts ; B. venosus and B. turbatus in like manner attack acorns, 

 B. betuloe (cerasorum) lays its eggs in the kernel of Prunus spinosa (the 

 common sloe) and B. elephas, which is not found in Britain, in chest- 

 nuts ; the insects appear to bore a hole into the kernel during the early 

 development of the nut or fruit and there deposit an e'gg ; this happens 

 in early summer or as soon as the nuts or fruits have become set ; the 

 larva hatches and continues feeding until autumn, when the nuts or 



