BEETLES. " 29 



organs some upon the leaves, others upon the flowers, fruits, 

 or seeds, and others again upon the wood or bark. The study 

 of the natural history of these animals and the determination 

 of the homologous fossil species will afford many interesting 

 hints as to the relations of the animal and vegetable worlds at 

 this early period. 



The most numerous group in the family Attelabidse is that of 

 the Attelabinse, represented at (Eningen by thirteen species be- 

 longing to the genera Attelabus, Rhynchites, and Apion. Figs. 

 242-244 show the representatives of these genera from (Eningen. 

 The little Apion has exactly the appearance of the living species. 

 These are all minute elegant creatures, which live chiefly upon 

 the seeds of the trefoils (Robinia;) and other papilionaceous 

 plants. The Rhynchites attack the buds and young leaves of the 

 vine; and some of them also feed on the young fruits of pomaceous 

 and stone-fruited trees. This insect has sometimes the names 

 of "the spade " ("laBeche") and of "Lisette." The species 

 represented in fig. 243 resembles the common vine-beetle (Li- 

 sette) ; and probably, with a second allied species (R. silenus, 

 Heer), it lived upon the vines of CEningen. These are European 

 forms; but the Attelabus durus, Heer (fig. 244), reminds Prof. 

 Heer of an American type. 



Six species of the Anthribidae probably lived in the forest, upon 

 fungi and rotten wood. The Bruchidae, with their three species, 

 fed on seeds. One of them (Bruchus striolatus, Heer) most re- 

 sembles in size and form the species living in the palm-nuts of 

 tropical America. In the Bruchidse the rostrum is short and 

 broad, while in the Antliarhinidae it is extraordinarily long and 

 thin. To this subfamily, which is now met with only on the 

 cycads of the Cape of Good Hope, Prof. Heer refers a very small 

 insect from CEningen (Antliarhinus gracilis, Heer, fig. 246), 

 characterized by its long rostrum of a hair-like fineness, at the 

 base of which the antennae are inserted. 



Of the family Curculionidae nine subfamilies are represented 

 at CEningen ; among these the Cleonidae, Molytidae, Erirhinidae, 

 and Cryptorhynchidse include the largest number of species. 

 The genus Cleonus is found in great numbers, and comprises 

 fourteen species. The corresponding existing species are found 

 in fissures and under stones in the moist ground of the waterside, 



