BDIIGRANT BEETLES. 163 



digenous to Great Britain. Many other species have been 

 placed on the British lists, but entomologists have decided 

 that the}' have been introduced into England in cargoes of 

 peas, beans, or corn, and therefore ought not to ba admitted as 

 genuine British insects. Indeed, it could be wished that the 

 law of extradition could be extended to insects, and that these 

 Weevils, together with the cockroach and sundry other de- 

 structive and noxious insects, could be restored to the country 

 whence they came. 



The family of the Anthribidoe will be represenled 1)}' one 

 example. This family has also eleven joints in the antennae, 

 the whole of which is formed of three joints, as is seen at 

 Fig. g, and the second joint of the tarsi has two lobes, as 

 shown at Fig. j. Our example of this family is Platyrhinus 

 latirosfris, Woodcut XVI. Fig. 5, and is the only British 

 specimen of its genus. The generic name of this insect, signi- 

 fying ' broad-nosed,' points out one of the leading peculiarities 

 of this genus, which has the head so wide and short that it 

 scarcely seems to belong to the long-snouted Ehynchophora. 

 In this genus the two basal joints of the antennae are short, 

 and the club is a very bold and abrupt one, like the knob at 

 the end of a life-pres^-rver. The elytra reach to the end of the 

 body, and the antennae are longer in the male than in the 

 female. 



The present species is oblong in shape, and the general 

 colour is black. The short beak is ashen-white, changing to 

 black at the tip, and the thorax is punctured and boldly 

 wrinkled. The elytra are adorned with rows of punctures, and 

 are black in colour, except towards the apex, on which are two 

 black dots, and in some species two or three little dusky 

 streaks. The abdomen is white, changing to black at the 

 sides, and the legs are black, but have a greyish-white down on 

 them. 



This is not a plentiful insect, and requires much searching 

 before it can be found, owing to its dusky colours, and its in- 

 genious mode of selecting such localities as harmonize best 

 vvith its mottled surface. Heaps of dry sticks, for example, 

 are places where an insect-hunter may expect, if anywhere, to 

 find this Beetle. It also clings to the tnmks of ash, alder, and 



M '2 



