342 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



great size, and are among the largest Beetles known. These are not granivorous, but live in the 

 stems of succulent plants and trees, especially palms and bananas, several kinds being very destructive 

 also to the sugar-cane. The fat grubs of a species of Rhynchophorus, found in sugar-plantations 

 in Guiana, contain in their enti-ails lumps of sweet wax, secreted from their 

 saccharine pabulum, and are boiled and eaten by the natives. We figure a 

 species of this genus, with its obese larva in situ. The species of the brilliant 

 metallic-coloured genus RhyncJdtes, belonging to the old section Orthocera, attack 

 various fruits. Many species are common in Europe, and seventeen are inhabi- 

 tants of the British Islands. The females lay their eggs in the newly-formed 

 fruit of apples, pears, plums, &c., piercing first holes for the purpose, and after- 

 wards notching the peduncle of the fruit, so that it soon dies and falls. Rhynchites 

 bacclius, a species of a rich golden-purple hue, and a quarter of an inch in length, 

 sometimes proves very destructive to the pear crop in France. A voder us coryli 



rlHYNCHITEb BACCH L S. . 



attacks nuts, and is common on hazel-trees in woods in England. The allied 

 genus Ajrion, small blue-black Weevils, with pear-shaped bodies, prey upon the seeds of leguminous 

 shrubs, especially vetches, and are of great number and variety. The species belonging to the 

 genus Larinus affect plants of the Composites order, the larvae feeding on the flowers, forming little 

 cocoons by gluing together fibrils and fragments of the inflorescence. A large number of Cur- 

 culionidae pass their early stages in the pith of stems of trees and plants. One 

 small group (Orchesles), remarkable for their thickened hind legs and faculty of 

 leaping, are leaf-miners in their larva state ; as many as ten or twelve of the 

 larvae of Orchestes pratemis have been seen in discoloured patches on the 

 leaves of Centaurea scabiosa. 



FAMILY SCOLYTID^E. 



The Scolytidae are pre-eminently wood-borers, consisting of small cylindrical 

 or oblong-oval Beetles, well fitted for their functions by their short, strong- 

 toothed mandibles, flattened and dentate antei-ior legs, and the grater-like 

 surface of their prothorax. Many of their species attract attention by the 

 curious vermiform, branched, and radiating galleries which they sculpture in 

 the inner bai*k and adjoining hard wood of trees in our parks and avenues. 

 They are effectively distinguished from the Curculionidae by their linear naked 

 tarsi, and very short and broad muzzle. The result of their labours is to destroy the bark, whereby 

 the trees themselves are rendered easy prey to internal wood-borers. The destruction caused by the 

 numerous species in the royal or national forests of France and Germany has led to their habits being 

 closely studied on the Continent by many eminent observers, and recorded in voluminous treatises. 



In Great Britain much curious and original information regarding native species has been fur- 

 nished by Dr. Algernon Chapman. A peculiar feature in their habits is the co-operation which has 

 been observed between the sexes the adult insects in the work of wood-burrowing ; and another is 

 the performance of the functions of pairing and ovipositing, like the transformations at least, in some 

 of the species within the burrows. This latter, however, is not continued, as may well be imagined, 

 from generation to genei-ation, such breeding in-and-in being abhorrent to nature, judging from the 

 vaiious ways in which it is guarded against throughout both the animal and vegetable creations ; 

 orifices of exit from the galleries, therefore, always exist, by which the winged adults are free to go 

 forth and pair with members of other colonies. The trees preferred by the Scolytidae are elms, ash, 

 oak, poplar, and various coniferse and fruit-trees ; and when they have secured undisturbed occupation, 

 they have been known in a short time seriously to thin whole forests. The greater number of the 

 species affect the inner bark, or cambium layer, of the trees, the work commencing by the parent insect 

 burrowing a gallery, along the sides of which she lays her eggs, the larvae on being hatched forming 

 their burrows at right angles to that of the parent, the burrows diverging as the grub increases in 

 size, so that in time they assume that fan-like appearance which is so commonly seen, llylesinus 

 raxini, the common borrower of the ash-tree in England, is stated by Dr. Chapman to prefer recently- 

 fallen timber to the living tree ; and in the first attack the female commences the burrow, the male 

 not beginning until she has quite buried herself within. In the course of a few days, however, both 



APODERVS CORYII. 



