304< NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



the circle of the Prionidce. We have not space here to 

 analyse these relations, and can only hint at them to 

 guide the student's further research. As aberrant con- 

 stituents of this circle, we shall, of course,, find many 

 of the small xylophagous genera,, as Lyctus, Bitoma, 

 &c. &c. 



(274.) Our fifth family consists of the Curculionidce. 

 It cannot be expected that we can give more than a very 

 general idea of this enormous concourse of insects, which, 

 in Schonherr's monograph, already occupies five octavo 

 volumes of nearly a thousand pages each, and will possibly 

 require as many more to complete it. The described 

 species considerably exceed 5000 in number. The most 

 striking peculiarity in their economy is their being 

 very extensively carpophagous, or feeders upon seeds and 

 fruits: we have already noticed some of their most 

 prominent features, and thence we may assume that 

 those which have the longest rostra, and most strongly 

 geniculated antennae, must, of course, be the most typi- 

 cal in their own circle ; we therefore find them in the 

 genus Balaninusj our common nut weevil, and its affini- 

 ties. Megarhinus and Antliarhinus also offer us striking 

 instances of this characteristic; in the latter, this rostrum 

 is several times longer than the body, and as slender as a 

 stout bristle. Schonherr, in his very arti ficial arrangement 

 of these insects, has widely separated these genera ; he 

 has, however, suggested a new arrangement at the com- 

 mencement of his fifth volume, in which he has turned 

 the whole mass, of what he calls the spurious Curcu- 

 lios, round, to follow the Orthoceri, or those which 

 have not the antennae geniculated, but which are usually 

 long-snouted insects. By this means we have them im- 

 mediately succeeding the Cossoni and Rhyncophora, 

 insects, also, which have long rostra. The filiform 

 Brenthides, as also the Rhinomacerides, Anthribides, 

 and Bruchides, as abnormal forms, are excluded from 

 the genuine series. The most typical Gonatoceri, 

 or those with geniculated antennee, are evidently con- 

 tained in the first division of his Mecorliynchi, namely, 



