COLEOPTERA. 



149 



ncath, and without claws at the end. The female, on the other hand, is a grub-like 

 creature, without legs, wings, or eyes. She never leaves the body of her host, and 

 from her eggs active little six-legged larvae develop, which make their way out 

 and get carried into the nests of bees and wasps, where they bore into the bodies 

 of the grubs. The Stylopidce are very rarely seen, and the number of species 

 known is small. They have been arranged in four or five genera, based upon 

 slight differences in the structure of the males, all of which have the general 

 appearance shown in our figure of Xenos peckii. 



Sitones lineatus and 

 allied species. 



SECTION TETRAMERA. 



The Curculionidce or weevils are distinguished from all other beetles by a 

 few well-marked characters. The head is always produced in front in the form 

 either of a short muzzle or a more or less elongated and 

 narrow beak, which carries the mouth at its extremity ; the 

 prothorax rarely has sharp lateral edges, and the coxal cavities 

 on the under side of that segment are always closed in behind 

 by the extension inwards of the epimera to meet in the middle 

 line ; and the antennae are elbowed, with the first joint as a rule 

 long, and some of the joints at the end forming a club. Though 

 agreeing in a few essential characters, the weevils present 

 considerable variety, not only in the form and structure of 

 different parts, but also in the general shape of the body. 

 They have been arranged in a number of subfamilies, but it 

 is impossible in a limited space to describe the various modifi- 

 cations of structure on which these divisions are based, and we 

 must content ourselves here with a brief reference to some of 



the typical and more interesting forms. In the genus 

 Sitones, we have examples of those weevils in which the 

 snout is short and comparatively broad. S. lineatus is 

 a well - known species which lives on papilionaceous 

 plants, and frequently does much mischief by devouring 

 the young leaves of peas and beans. It is a little 

 yellowish grey or drab-coloured beetle with three pale 

 lines along the thorax, and a number of rows of 

 punctures along the elytra. Its colour is due to a thick 

 covering of scales, some of which, when looked at closely, 

 are seen to have a golden tint. 



Weevils are, as a rule, most destructive during the 

 larval state, the adult insects doing a comparatively 

 small amount of injury to vegetation; but as regards 

 Hylobius abietis, known as " the large pine-weevil," one 

 of the worst enemies of young conifers, the injury done 

 to the trees is altogether the work of the beetles, while 

 the grubs are quite harmless. The genus Apion com- 

 prises a large number of little, long - snouted weevils, 



PINE-WEEVIL, WITH LARVA AND 

 PUPA. 



