THE CURCULIONID^. 



805 



the Erirhinides, two forms of which we have already 

 noticed. The position of the legs, the structure and 

 number of the joints of the flagellum of the antenns, 

 the form of the pectus, of the rostrum, and of the lateral 

 channel in tlie latter, into which the insect can with- 

 draw its antennae, supply the leading characters in the 

 generic distribution of this host of insects. Thus, in 

 some, as in the Cryptorhynchi, the insect has the 

 power of burying its long rostrum in a groove in the 

 breast. Zygops, in this same group, is remarkable for 

 the size and contiguity of its eyes, as also for the com- 

 pression of its legs, and Mononychus for the single 

 claw at the apex of its tarsi. In Mecopus the anterior 

 legs of the male are exceedingly lengthy. We also 

 find lengthy anterior legs among the Rhynchophora, 

 which have not the power of concealing their long ros- 

 trum in the breast. In the latter, the tarsi are con- 

 siderably developed, and they contain the largest genuine 

 weevils, aU being ti'uly carpophagous. Protocerius 

 colossum is more than two inches long, and of a pro- 

 portionate bulk ; in length, however, as compared with 

 bulk, the Brenthides are the most conspicuous, for 

 Brenthus barbicornis, a New Zealand insect, is usually 

 two inches and three quarters long, and at its widest 

 part it is not more than two lines wide : but the most 

 bulky of this group are to be found in the short-snouted 

 division, in the genus Brachycerus, wherein we have a 

 species more than an inch and three quarters long, and 

 an inch broad, and all its limbs of a proportionate ro- 

 bustness. These latter insects, which are apterous, occur 

 in sandy deserts, and we have already had occasion to 

 compare them with some of the Pimelias, with which, in 

 habits, they completely agree : they occur in abundance 

 in Southern Africa, Patagonia, and the French coast of 

 the Mediterranean. Apterous insects are very frequent 

 in this group, which also, although it presents very many 

 obscure and black insects, is chiefly remarkable for the 

 brilliant splendour of the majority of its members. A 

 well-known instance of this splendid clothing, and one 



